---
title: "Hayden finds first day back a difficult one"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2016/09/23/hayden-finds-first-day-back-a-difficult-one/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "MotoGP News"
published: "2016-09-23T15:01:21Z"
modified: "2016-09-23T15:01:40Z"
---

# Hayden finds first day back a difficult one

Marc VDS Racing Team’s stand-in for the weekend Nicky Hayden held no illusions that his return to the MotoGP World Championship at Aragon would be easy, and indeed Friday was a tough one for the American rider.

Hayden was given the call-up after Jack Miller was declared unfit to ride due to several fractures in his right hand. Today was the first time the 2006 World Champion had ridden a MotoGP bike since Valencia last year and the first time on a factory Honda since 2008.

The day started off okay for Hayden. He finished FP1 down in 20th place on a 1m51.873s, but was only a second adrift of Tito Rabat’s best time and a respectable three seconds off the pace. The Marc VDS rider opted to run with used tyres for the entirety of the first session and was left satisfied with his pace relative to those who did the same.

FP2 was a much more difficult affair. Still not quite comfortable with his positioning on the RC213V, he also struggled with front-end feel, Hayden noting that he wasn’t getting much feedback from the front and feels as if he was pushing it too much.

Though not making the step forward from FP1 he would have liked, FP2 wasn’t a total disaster. He managed to improve his time from the morning by nearly a second to a 1m50.992s, cutting his deficit to teammate Rabat to around four tenths of a second.

Hayden hopes that changes to the bike set-up made overnight will to hit the ground running tomorrow and continue to improve his pace.

“It wasn’t an easy day and I knew that coming into this weekend when I signed up for it. I needed a bit of time to get comfortable with the riding position, particularly with the handlebars,” he said.

“We started to make some gradual progress but then I hit a bit of a wall with the front. At the moment I can’t feel the limit on the front. It feels like there’s a lot of weight on the front and I’m asking a lot from it. And I’m not getting a lot of feedback, so overnight we’ll look to get more weight on the rear and help me get more comfortable. Hopefully tomorrow morning I can get straight down to business and make a big step. This morning I stayed on used tyres and my pace compared to the guys that did the same is not too bad. But this afternoon I wasn’t able to make the step forward I’d hoped.”