Ducati’s Nicky Hayden considered pulling out of the Misano race as the hand he broke in a big high-side at Indianapolis was still nothing like as strong as it should have been and he only decided to take part after morning warm-up.

The 2006 world champion still has metacarpal cracks and didn’t know whether he could last a full race distance but decided to give it a go in front of the Bologna factory’s home crowd.

“I felt bad enough that we considered not racing, but being here in Italy, I wanted to at least try. This track seems to provide a lot of drama, and I thought if I could just stay clean and get to the finish, I might salvage somewhat of a result,” said Hayden.

“I knew it was going to be extremely difficult. Unless you’ve ever used carbon brakes with a Bridgestone front tyre, you don’t realize how hard you can squeeze the lever on a MotoGP bike now, and a couple of laps, I had to slow down to try to let my hand recover. It wasn’t very strong, and it was really painful, but I was able to hang on and get a seventh today.

“Hopefully I can start building up for the rest of the season. It’s great to see Vale on the podium, and it’s a well-deserved reward for all the effort by Filippo, his staff, the team, and the factory.”