virgivaughn: Hayden admits Ducati has lost ground

Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati, Sepang MotoGP testing February 2013 Nicky Hayden admitted that Ducati appeared to have fallen even further back after the first two days of 2013 MotoGP testing at Sepang.

Ducati has insisted that this would be a building year as it moved back towards the front following two barren seasons.

But both Hayden and new team-mate Andrea Dovizioso struggled on the first two days in Malaysia, ending day two at the foot of the top 10.

“Yesterday was two seconds off, today’s a second and a half. It would be great if we could take another half a second out of it tomorrow but I don’t know how easy that’s going to be,” Hayden told the official MotoGP website.

He conceded that to fall further away from the pace was a blow to morale.

“It’s still a bit frustrating to be so far away. Even further away than we ended last year, I guess,” said the 2006 world champion.

“It’s really tough on all the guys and me.”

Although Ducati did gain some pace on Wednesday, Hayden played downs any hopes of a breakthrough.

“We didn’t make any huge changes,” he said.

“The track was a lot better today, that helped us. Any time the track is more grippy is a lot better for us, so we’re thankful for that.”

Vito Guareschi and Nicky Hayden Hayden said Ducati would try and squeeze what more it could from its current package on the final day of the first test on Thursday.