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Nicky Hayden

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The S.S. MotoGP set sail this weekend, as the Estoril GP looked more like a regatta than a GP race with all the water on the track. A monsoon storm has hit Portugal, causing two for the four practice sessions, including Saturday’s qualifying session, to be canceled because of the inclement weather.

As such Sunday’s GP race grid, for all the racing classes, will be comprised from each rider’s best practice time, which for Jorge Lorenzo is good news, as the Spanish rider ties Jorge “Aspar” Martinez for having the most pole positions from a Spaniard. Also benefitting from cancelled qualifier is American Nicky Hayden, who will start from the second position on Sunday’s grid.

Although Jorge Lorenzo may be on the pole position at Sepang where many expect that Spaniard to clinch the World Championship, the talk at the Malaysian GP right now is about Nicky Hayden. The American lead most of qualifying, and will start tomorrow second on the grid, after missing the pole spot by only a tenth of a second.

Hayden had an abysmal time last week at Motegi for the Japanese GP, and looked to be on a similar path this weekend, but the Ducati Corse team went back to a setting from testing last year, and Hayden was able to make up the rest of the distance himself.

If you weren’t in Indianapolis for the Indy GP, you certainly missed one of the better side events of the weekend: The Lucas Oil Indy Mile AMA Flat Track Grand National. It’s hard to make riding on packed dirt at breakneak speeds with no brakes more exciting, but throw in former flat track Champion Nicky Hayden, the entire Ducati Corse MotoGP team, and a contract announcement and you have the makings for a very special event.

With Ducati Motor Holdings CEO Gabriele del Torchio on-stage to announce Hayden’s new two-year contract, motorcycle racing fans got to see their homeboy do good. Helping celebrate the event, Hayden took to the track with his steel boot, and held nothing back for his loyal followers.

Track conditions were the talk of the paddock this weekend at the Indianapolis GP, as riders battled the changing tarmac surfaces, and undulating bumps of the Indy infield. Perhaps most vocal of his displeasure with the course was Ducati rider Casey Stoner, who called the Indianapolis Motor Speedway not a world class track, and specifically complained about plastic drains that would catch riders as the ventured in towards the edge of the track (Rossi also complained of these drains).

Teammate Nicky Hayden was less critical before Sunday’s race though, saying that Stoner’s comments could be applied to many of the courses on the MotoGP calendar. However after losing a knee puck to one of the drainage grates that Stoner criticized earlier, Hayden may be re-thinking his tune.

The loss of his left-side knee puck meant that Hayden could not drag a knee for many of the course’s turns, which favors left-handers heavily. Obviously dragging his leathers despite the loss of the puck, Hayden says he could have made a better showing if it wasn’t for the knee puck becoming detached from his suit. Warning: If you don’t like seeing road rash, avoid the picts after the jump.

In an announcement made before today’s Indianapolis GP, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway published that it will host MotoGP again next year, as Dorna has renewed The Brickyard with a one-year contract. This announcement puts an end to the immediate chatter that surrounded the MotoGP venue before this weekend, as it was speculated that IMS would not be returning to the MotoGP calendar for the 2011 season.

However the announcement also raises some more eyebrows, specifically because of the short renewal duration (Laguna Seca also renewed its contract with Dorna this year, but will host MotoGP through 2014), and also because of the growing pressure from riders regarding the track’s surface and format.

Perhaps most vocal of his opinion about the track’s condition is Casey Stoner. The Ducati rider missed last year’s Indianapolis GP, and says that there has been a significant degradation between Indy’s inaugural conditions and those from this weekend. One of the victim’s of the bumps in Turn 6, Stoner succintly believes that there’s, “a lot of the circuit they need to have a big think about.”

Under the lights of the Indy Mile, where motorcycle racing began for the Kentucky-born MotoGP racer, Nicky Hayden has signed a two-year contract with Ducati Corse for the 2011 & 2012 seasons. Not the biggest surprise in the paddock, Hayden’s contract renewal has never really been questioned this season as the American started the season off with series of strong finishes and continues to be a strong brand ambassador for Ducati in the United States.

Hayden will be joined the next two years by former teammate Valentino Rossi, the pair rode for Repsol Honda in 2003, with Hayden finishing the season 5th in his rookie GP season.

The latest news to come out of Indianapolis this week should be painfully obvious for loyal MotoGP fans, but we have to cover it none-the-less. Expected to announce renewing his contract with Ducati Corse before Sunday’s race, Nicky Hayden will sure up his 2011 MotoGP placement in-front of a home crowd this weekend.

There really hasn’t been any doubt this year that Hayden would end up anywhere other than Ducati, especially the strong season the American has shown with a bevy of Top 5 finishes. As Ducati has now officially crossed-their-heart-hope-to-die signed Valentino Rossi for reals now (do you see what we did there?), it can announce its intentions with Hayden, and officially bow-out of the 2010 MotoGP Silly Season.

Crashing during Saturday’s qualifying session at Brno, Nicky Hayden found himself in the gravel trap after losing the front-end of his Ducati Desmosedici GP10. Somewhere along the way of sliding over the asphalt and into the stones, Hayden broke off a portion of his radius bone in his left wrist, and had to be taken to Clinica Mobile for examination.

X-rays confirmed the break, but the American rider soldiered-on through the Czech GP with extra padding on his grip. Finishing the race in respectable form, Hayden will have to heal up over the next two weekends if he wants to be 100% for his hometown GP at Indy. More pictures after the jump.

Sleep is a luxury in the MotoGP paddock. Sunburned, tired, and still with only a rudimentary understanding of Italian, we’re slogging our way through the paddock talking to teams and riders. We’ll try to pick out individual stories during the day…but no promises. Instead you’ll find a daily digest coming your way each morning from the previous day, which will touch on the day’s major events.

Head over to MotoMatters.com if you want more in-depth coverage (or click on the links in the digest), as David Emmett will be making sense of our sloppy handwriting and noisy audio clips, and turning it into MotoGP gold. Thursday’s digest after the jump.