Drive M7 Honda’s Nicky Hayden had to race with an even less powerful engine during the Qatar MotoGP encounter after being told by engineers in Japan to wind down the RPM to protect the motor.

Hayden wasn’t able to do as many practice starts as he would have liked and also had to change his start procedure so he didn’t get off the line as well as he would have liked. It is not yet known whether Scott Redding was forced to do the same wit his identical Gresini bike.

“We had to change our start procedure to be a little more gentle on the engine, so it was different than I had used in testing so wasn’t the best start but the first few laps, guys were everywhere and my pace in the beginning was ok, I was able to string 56s together,” said Hayden, speaking at Qatar.

“We lowered the rpm. In Japan, they found a little problem and they wanted to play it safe so actually we didn’t do starts on Thursday we had to wait. Less rpm is easier on the engine but less performance.

“I was trying to hang on the back of Espargaro but I used up the tyre too much, especially on the left. He would take a little time out of me on the straightaway and then I would do the maximum on the infield to catch up, I should have been a little more gentle but I pushed too much."

“When he went, me and Scott were together and we went back and forth a few times, and then he was able to beat me, just barely to the line. Eighth place was not a disaster but we realise a lot of guys crashed.”