race winner Toni Elías—he took away five points from Rossi, which would play a crucial role at the last race in Valencia. After the race, Hayden said that he "didn't expect Dani to pull over and let me by, but I definitely didn't expect him to do that." Being relegated to second in the championship standings, Hayden knew it would be tough to win at the Valencian Community round. Rossi needed to finish in second place or higher to win the title. He took his second consecutive pole position on Saturday with Hayden starting on the second row in fifth place. On race day however, Rossi got a poor start, dropping him back in seventh place on the opening lap. Hayden meanwhile moved up from sixth to second on lap three of 30. He then tried to go after race leader and wildcard rider Troy Bayliss, who replaced the injured Sete Gibernau. On lap five however, Rossi made a crucial mistake when he lost the front wheel of his M1 and slid out of contention. He managed to get going again, but it would be to no avail: Rossi finished 13th while Hayden crossed the line in third place behind the Ducatis of Bayliss and Capirossi, collecting 247 points to Hayden's 252 and in turn, Nicky Hayden won the 2006 title by five points. 2007 On September 22, 2006, Hayden signed a two-year agreement that allowed for him to race for and develop with the factory Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) team for the 2007 and 2008 MotoGP seasons. He utilized the 800cc Honda RC212V, and as title holders, his MotoGP racing number changed from 69 to 1 for the 2007 season. The 2007 season started badly for Hayden, struggling with the performance of the new bike. In Qatar he finished seventh while his teammate Dani Pedrosa finished on the podium, behind Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner, who won for his debut race for Ducati. At the next two races in Spain and Turkey, Hayden finished in seventh place twice before finishing 12th in China. At the French round, Hayden recorded his first retirement of the season. While running fourth in the race, he suffered a heavy fall with just four laps to go. Chris Vermeulen on the Suzuki won the rain-affected race. At the Italian and Catalan rounds, Hayden finished 10th and 11th before finishing outside of the points in