Britain’s Scott Redding feels it is job jobbed after the first MotoGP race at Qatar as he managed to beat fellow Honda RCV1000R rider Nicky Hayden and finish as the top Open class HRC man.

Redding was involved in a battle with the 2006 world champion for a majority of the race but a mistake from the Kentucky Kid allowed Redding through. Hayden went back past but Redding slapped on a decisive move with two laps to go to take seventh place in his debut race.

“It was really good. I don’t know if he did it on purpose or whether he wanted to save the tyre a bit but actually when I went past, I slowed up as I wanted him to go past again as I felt comfortable saving the tyre as we were the only one with the soft," said Redding.

“He wasn’t really in a hurry so I took it a bit easy and when he came back past I thought he might try and break away, so I passed him into turn 11 and managed to hold him off. The left side of the tyre kept coming round on entry so I couldn’t use full lean angle but I was really happy with the bike for the full race.

“I was looking for a point or two. My main aim was to beat Nicky. I didn’t think I could do it but then on the grid he was only two metres in front of me, so I thought, ‘Why can’t I do it?’”