American Nicky Hayden is World Champion!
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America had what some would call it's only current World Champion, as Nicky Hayden won the MotoGP World Championship at Valencia, in Spain yesterday.
Hayden was winning comfortably in the middle of the year, but five times World Champion, Valentino Rossi closed up on his tail.
Going into the Portuguese Motorcycle Grand Prix at Estoril two weeks ago, Hayden led Rossi, but his own Honda team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, took him off the track in an accident. This gave Rossi an 8 point lead going into the race in Valencia.
Rossi qualified on pole, and Hayden was down in fifth - victory seemed impossible for the American.
But Rossi struggled off the line as riders came passed him - Hayden nearly knocked him off - but Rossi had dropped to sixth, while Hayden was second behind Troy Bayliss, the World Superbike Champion of 2006 (an Australian).
By Lap 4, Rossi had dropped to seventh, and suddenly Hayden thought he had a chance.
Disaster struck on Lap 7 for Rossi, when he slid out of the race at a corner. It was an odd off, as he just slid of his bike, without putting power down too early. Rossi normally rides such potential hazards brilliantly, but not this time.
Rossi dropped to last place - out of the points - and now Hayden was favourite.
Still Rossi didn't give up, advancing through the field up to 13th place.
Meanwhile, Hayden let Loris Capirossi through, since Hayden was struggling to keep him behind. Hayden had points to play with suddenly, and letting him through made no difference.
Hayden held on to third to become World Champion, with Rossi finishing just six points behind the winner (Hayden's total was well over 200 points). Rossi was one of the first to congratulate him on the cool down lap.
Bayliss won the race, but Hayden won the championship.
Source
- My own eyes
