Scott Redding completed his first premier class race with an excellent seventh place, after a battle with the experienced Nicky Hayden, who of course also rides the Open class Honda RCV1000R.

Redding marked his MotoGP™ debut and his 100th Grand Prix appearance with a solid ride into the top ten at the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar.

The 21-year-old MotoGP rookie got a good start and stalked former World Champion Hayden for much of the race, before making his move and passing the American.

Redding had been hovering outside the top ten, but was elevated up the order as riders crashed out in front of him, eventually finishing as the top rookie, earning his first nine points in the standings.


“I am very happy,” said the young Englishman of his result. “I was expecting to be able to follow Hayden for a few laps, not for the entire race and even beat him. In the first laps I wanted to exploit the potential of the softer tyre and I was pretty aggressive, making some moves.”

“At that point I followed Hayden for a lot of laps, then I felt that he let me pass, only to overtake me soon after. I knew, however, that I could be faster than him, so in the latter part of the race I tried to overtake him on the fast sector, with a big move, then I pushed as much as I could for the last two laps. We reached our goal, which was to be the best Open class Honda.”



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