Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso took out the heavy weaponry for their battle at Sepang and the Italian took away the honours in the end, gaining a podium place as well in the process.
Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso took out the heavy weaponry for their battle at Sepang and the Italian took away the honours in the end, gaining a podium place as well in the process. Although Hayden was quite disappointed to miss a chance to stand on the podium, he did not stop from praising his rival and future replacement at Repsol Honda for the year 2009.
“Congratulations to ‘Dovi’ on his first podium. The dude held tough. We went back and forth a few times and I enjoyed the battle, you know it was fun to be fighting for the podium but I came up short,” said the Kentucky Kid.
The favour was returned by Dovizioso at the end of the race as well. Hayden, in response to the question whether Dovizioso would take the Repsol Honda team further in the new season, said “I really do think that he will. Certainly he gets just about everything out of the package he’s got right now and he is solid. Week in and week out, he doesn’t make too many mistakes and he is fast in all conditions. He is going to be a big threat next year and he is the real deal”.
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With the final round coming up at Valencia and the championship already settled, all eyes will turn on the battle between Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso while Nicky Hayden, 17 points behind the Dovizioso, still has a shot at making it into 5th place.
