Hayden rues problematic build-up

The world champion had crashed on Friday morning, then suffered electrical issues and an engine failure in the afternoon, before having his best qualifying lap interrupted when Carlos Checa crashed in front of him.

But he made rapid progress from 14th on race day and was the fastest man on the track in the closing stages.

"I wish we could start all over from Friday," Hayden said.

"I lost all of Friday, and you can't do that. Just one problem after another. It wasn't anything the team was doing, it was my fault.

"I crashed the bike, I tore the other one up, so I had to sit and watch over half the first session, and that's probably your most important one. That's where you really get your direction and get your footing."

The American, who has recently returned to form after a frustrating start to 2007, admitted that he had become very downcast earlier in the weekend.

"I was quite frustrated Friday night and yesterday," Hayden said.

"I came here after two pretty good weekends and thought everything was looking pretty good. Then I came here and it was like it all fell back.

"It really took the wind out of my sails. I don't want to sound like a baby, but I was down. But it's just racing, it's a funny game, and that's why you don't give up."

Hayden's progress was helped by Michelin's superiority in the sweltering conditions of race day.

"Certainly our tyres were good today," he said.

"At the end when I caught the Bridgestone guys it was like bringing a gun to a knife fight - you could see they were in trouble and it felt like cheating really.

"They've had the advantage plenty of times this year so I guess it evened out."

Hayden revealed that he had a mid-race scare when his bike appeared to be developing more technical problems.

"Something happened, I did a couple of quite slow laps and I thought I had a problem with the bike because it sounded funny," he said.

"I thought 'man, not again'. After the other day I didn't want to put down oil and hold everybody up, or do anything that would put me out of Laguna.

"I went through the engine modes to see whether it was something fuel-related maybe, it didn't make a difference, and I just put my head back down. If anything it probably helped save the tyre a lot."

Despite his difficult build-up, Hayden said he had always been confident that he could turn his weekend around when the race began.

"On the grid, I honestly believed I could get to the front," he said. "If you don't, you may as well go and find yourself a seat, some beer and put on some sunblock..."