source : www.road-d.com

Tuesday, 16th September 2008

Nicky Hayden finally confirmed at Ducati Marlboro for the 2009 MotoGP World Championship.

Just one day after scoring his first podium of the 2008 season, in Sunday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix, it has finally been officially announced that 2006 MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden will join Ducati for 2009.

Hayden’s Ducati move, which will see the 27-year-old line-up alongside 2007 world champion Casey Stoner, has been considered a done deal for months. The American will make his debut on next year’s Desmosedici GP9 in a test immediately after the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix, on October 27th.

“We are really happy to have Nicky join us,” declared Claudio Domenicali, Ducati Corse CEO and Ducati Motor Holding Product Director. “We are certain that his never-say-die attitude, riding style and character will be great additions to our team in 2009. I would like to thank HRC for allowing Nicky to start testing our bike immediately after the Valencia Grand Prix.”

Although a Repsol Honda rider for his entire six-year grand prix career, there has been an increasing degree of inevitability about Hayden and Ducati joining forces, which began when the Italian marque first tried to sign the American towards the end of his title-winning season.

Hayden eventually chose to stick with Honda for a further two years – believing, like many, that the Japanese giant would be hard to beat during the start of the new 800cc era – just as it had been when the 990cc class began in 2002.

But it was Stoner, signed by Ducati after Hayden’s polite rejection, who romped to ten wins and the 2007 title, then provided the closest opposition to Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi during 2008.

By contrast Hayden, and to a lesser extent Honda, have struggled ever since the capacity cut – the Kentuckian claiming just four podiums since the end of 2006, while Honda has won only four races, all with Hayden’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Many consider (rightly or wrongly) that Hayden hasn’t received the backing he deserves from Honda since the arrival of former 125 and double 250cc world champion Pedrosa.