Nicky Hayden thought he had escaped surgery after breaking his shoulder when he crashed during a pre-season training accident at the end of December, instead after experiencing some serious shoulder pain during the three day test at Sepang that hampered his testing of the new Ducati GP12, the American rider decided to check out his condition and flew directly to Fremont, California, for a thorough examination at Doctor Arthur Ting’s clinic.

There, tests revealed damage to cartilage in the American’s shoulder, as well as to muscles in his back. Tomorrow the Ducati Team rider will undergo an operation in order to have his condition evaluated more thoroughly, and to treat his injuries.

“Of course another operation before the season is never a good thing,” Hayden said, “but I’m actually happy that I tried to ride at Malaysia, because it helped me to discover that the problem with the shoulder was bigger than we thought. After seeing the scans, it was clear why I couldn’t ride well. Setbacks are a part of life and a part of MotoGP, so we’ll deal with it and do everything possible to get back on the bike in good condition as soon as possible. Ducati and the team are putting maximum effort into this championship, and that helps me to keep my spirits high and to be confident heading into the season.”

Having to undergo surgery will mean that Hayden will not be able to be present at Jerez in two weeks time for a Ducati private test. The next official MotoGP test is scheduled from February 28th to March 1st at Sepang.

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The MotoGP Sepang tests have finally started, and while weather forecasts predicted rain, it fortunately for everyone around it hasn’t hit yet.

The latest news from Sepang with times taken at 3 pm (local time) see the recovering Dani Pedrosa on top of the time charts with a best lap of 2’02″306, closely followed by Ben Spies on the factory Yamaha, who suffered a crash earlier in the morning.

Third at the moment is a surprising Alvaro Bautista on his Rizla Suzuki, who is just 0.110s from Pedrosa. The Gresini duo, Marco Simoncelli and Hiroshi Aoyama are 4th and 5th respectively.

Defending MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo finds himself in 7th, while Casey Stoner is in 8th on his Repsol Honda.

Valentino Rossi who has all eyes pointed on him, is the first Ducati rider with only 18 laps on GP 11 and finds himself behind HRC test rider Kosuke Akiyoshi, and more than 1.1s from Dani Pedrosa.

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang test: Dani Pedrosa on top, for the moment

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We’ve got more exclusive pics from the final day of testing from Motoblog’s Lallai who was with the Fiat on the Web team in Sepang and all the riders quotes.

Valentino Rossi - 1st 2′00″925 (32 laps)

“After yesterday this second day has been very good as well, even though we lost a few hours to the rain, and the end we were still able to finish all our work. We worked on the new bike to find a better setting and I was happy to be the fastest overall - even though this is just testing this is important for me! At the next test we will have a few more new things but we’re already happy because we’re fast and strong. There is room to improve of course; Sepang is always a good track for the Yamaha so we will have to wait until Qatar to get a better understanding of our level, but we have made a great start.”

Casey Stoner - 2nd 2′01″320 (44 laps)

“We are quite happy with the test. Today didn’t start really well because of the rain and the wet track, which set us back a few hours, but when it finally did dry out we were able to make some progress. We have definitely improved the set-up of the bike, trying some different things with the swingarm. The lap times are still not where we want them to be and we have to work on taking another couple of tenths off on hard tyres, but to be consistently doing 2′01.9 or 2′02.0 laps is a decent pace. Considering that we are using a different engine to the one we’ve had for the last three years and some other new parts that we still need to get the best out of we certainly can’t be unhappy with where we’re at. There is work to do but we have two more test sessions before the season starts for real. In general I am really pleased with how it’s gone.”

Jorge Lorenzo - 3rd 2′01″320 (60 laps)

“I felt much better today and I was able to be fast straight away. It wasn’t a big problem yesterday, it’s just that after such a long break I forget how to ride a little bit! I need a bit of time, but it was much better today. I’m happy about my performance and about my feeling with the new bike. Yamaha have made good improvements without changing the best parts of the bike and this is the best way. They have made some good modifications to the chassis and the engine and this has already improved our pace. We don’t have many days on the bike until the start of the season so we will make the most of the time here next month to continue our good work.”

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang Test Friday: More Pics and Rider Quotes

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In the final day of MotoGP testing, and after a very wet start in the morning that saw only eleven riders risking it out on track, Nicky Hayden came out on top, followed by Marco Melandri and Hector Barbera and Jorge Lorenzo.

By 2pm, the track dried out and all the ‘aliens’ were back in action and business was as usual. Jorge Lorenzo hit the top of the chart, with Valentino Rossi, who sat out the morning session and with only nine laps on his Yamaha in second place and Casey Stoner, who also sat out the morning, in third.

Marco Simoncelli highsided in the fast part of the circuit, picking up some grazing his left thigh and elbow and cuts on his little finger. After a visit to the Clinica Mobile, Simoncelli was back on track on his second bike.

Ben Spies who seems to have gotten over his jet lag was in fourth, a little less than 6 tenths of second from Lorenzo.

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang Test Friday: Valentino Rossi On Top Again

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Part of the duties of a MotoGP rider when they launch their new season campaign is to answer a lot of questions, some interesting, some pointless.

Here’s a video of Valentino Rossi from Sepang, who talks about his training, his rivals, the six engine rule, the return of the 1000cc, Formula 1, his future and as always his eventual retirement.

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