Hayden rides around broken frame on Red Bull Honda

Nicky Hayden says his Red Bull Honda squad uncovered a broken frame on his Fireblade CBR1000RR SP2 after race one which is blamed for his frustrating opener at Assen before bouncing back with ninth place in race two.

The former MotoGP world champion felt he couldn't extract the full performance from his Red Bull Honda in race one and after his Ten Kate Racing team stripped back the bike it unveiled a broken hanger in the frame.

After fixing the issue and a strong start off the line, Hayden felt he could target the top five battle before tyre wear played its part which saw him finish race two in ninth place.

"Race one was a disaster but we found out that the frame had a break in it on one of the hangers which made it impossible to be really fast and I could barely finish," Hayden said. "I was much happier in the warm-up straightaway and the team made a couple of changes overnight to calm the bike down a little bit.

"I made a pretty good start in the first couple of laps to make a couple of positons and was close to the battle for top guys. I enjoyed race two more today, not finishing 20 seconds back, but at least the bike was feeling good and I was able to fight with some other guys.

"It has not been an easy weekend having lost pretty much all of FP2 with a problem and then with the issue for race one."

Hayden remains outside the top ten in the World Superbike riders' championship, ten points off of Milwaukee Aprilia's Eugene Laverty, while Honda has stayed rooted to the bottom of the manufacturers' championship after the opening four rounds.