Team Drive M7 Aspar's Aoyama 8th, Hayden 10th in MotoGP Phillip Island Crashfest

19/10/14. 16 GP AUSTRALIA - PHILLIP ISLAND - RACE

DRIVE M7 Aspar take Top Ten finishes in chaotic race Hiroshi Aoyama, eighth, repeats best result of the season. Nicky Hayden places tenth in third point-scoring race in succession Chaos prevailed today in the MotoGP race held at Phillip Island. Last year’s event featured a tyre issue, and this time the compounds were again a talking point. The asymmetric compound, intended to solve the problems experienced by the MotoGP riders, sent several of them to the ground by a sudden drop in performance in the latter part of the race. Marc Márquez broke away early, with Jorge Lorenzo able to follow him and Valentino Rossi joining in a battle with his teammate eventually won by the Italian. For the last third of the race, Márquez, Rossi and Lorenzo were in podium positions and the situation appeared to be under control. However, race leader Marquez inexplicably crashed out, handing Rossi the victory on a plate. Lorenzo temporarily ceded second place to Cal Crutchlow, who crashed out on the last lap. In the end, Rossi, Lorenzo and Bradley Smith made up the podium.  The DRIVE M7 Aspar riders today had their brightest race since the Aragón GP, and both snuck into the top ten as they had done at the third Spanish GP of the season. Both Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama made use of their experience in a chaotic race that concluded with only fourteen riders reaching the chequered flag, taking eighth and tenth, respectively. Aoyama today repeated his best result of the year thanks to a hard-fought race, where he had to take on teammate Nicky Hayden, amongst others. Hayden was given a tough challenge by Yonny Hernández, but was able to best him in the fight to round off the Top Ten. He took points for the third race in a row. 8th Hiroshi Aoyama: "The temperature had changed considerably compared to yesterday, and also the conditions of the track, so the race was tough. Some riders opted for the hard front tyre, but we suffered a crash on Friday and yesterday we focused on getting the most out of the softer front compound. I think it was a very good decision to start the race with the soft front tyre, because it responded correctly through to the end. I don’t know why, but I suffered at the start of the race with a lack of rear grip. Still, I managed to stay in the group, and as the laps went by my feeling improved. The wind and heavy traffic prevented me from climbing more positions. I think today we could have placed higher, but it was also important to get to the finish line in a race plagued by accidents.” 10th Nicky Hayden: "Today I managed to start well, but on the opening lap somebody, trying to close the door, knocked me slightly and I lost a few positions. Fortunately I was able to recover and move back up. At one point I caught Hernández and I had to deal with him. When his tyre performance dropped, mine were still in good condition and I was able to go faster than him when accelerating. However, later on the straight he got back past me. We wasted time passing one another and the three riders ahead of us ended up escaping. On paper, tenth is positive -but we expected more from this race. The riders ahead of me were not much faster. We must be optimistic, because we've got three fairly positive results since our return, and next week we will continue working to try to improve."