---
title: "Hayden: Lack of improvement was a bummer"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/03/31/hayden-lack-improvement-bummer/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "SBK"
published: "2017-03-31T18:47:10Z"
modified: "2017-03-31T18:47:28Z"
---

# Hayden: Lack of improvement was a bummer

Honda’s Nicky Hayden was left feeling disappointed with his day’s work in Aragon after failing to make any major steps forward during afternoon practice.

The American has endured a fairly difficult start to the season on the new Firebalde, but has been able to make small steps forward with each race so far.

![](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/03/58de810ccc831-1.jpg)

Hayden and his crew had an idea on where to focus their efforts in practice today, and found they made a breakthrough with the Fireblade’s engine braking, which is behaving a lot more predictably than before.

“It has not been an easy day for us,” exclaimed the Honda rider.

“We came here with some ideas on how to improve and we actually have made a big step with engine braking, which is now much more consistent. I definitely felt more comfortable with that.”

Hayden ended the morning session looking like being a strong contender for a place in the second part of Superpole in 10th with a 1m51.507s, which put him just under a second off the pace.

However, the team decided to try running the gearing and electronics set-up from the 2016 Fireblade in FP2, and this proved to be a backwards step.

![Robert Cianflone/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/03/645074642.jpg)

This stopped Hayden from improving on his FP1 time in the afternoon and left him facing SP1 for the second race weekend in succession. Disappointed at this and his pace at present, he remains optimistic about tomorrow’s qualifying and race.

“We also tried to use last year’s gearing and electronics of the old bike we found in testing last November as a reference with out current machine, but they didn’t really work with this package and that kind of three us off a bit.

“I’m not happy with my pace and the lack of improvement in the afternoon was a bummer, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”