17th in Great Britain after crashing out of sixth place early on. Things would get better at the Dutch round. On Thursday, he had a good pace on both free practice sessions, finishing third in both sessions. At the third free practice session on Saturday, he finished third once more. However, a wet qualifying meant that Hayden lost a lot of the momentum he had in the dry and qualified in 13th place. During warm-up on Sunday, the track was dry and Hayden finished the session first, ahead of the Suzuki of John Hopkins and the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi. When the race started, Hayden moved from 13th to sixth going into the first corner, and moved up to finish in third: his first podium of the season and his highest position since the start of the season. His good form continued at the next race in Germany. Starting just 14th on the grid after another poor qualifying performance, the Michelin-shod Honda of Hayden, as well as the Yamaha of Colin Edwards fared much better on the Sachsenring track compared to the Bridgestone-shod Ducati of Casey Stoner, whom they would overtake in the closing stages of the race. Hayden finished third, making this his second consecutive podium of the year. After winning his home grand prix for two consecutive years, Hayden would retire for the second time at the United States round. After qualifying fourth on Saturday, he ran wide when he ran wide alongside John Hopkins at turn two and then made contact with Hopkins' Suzuki as both attempted to get back on line. Hayden would rejoin in 16th position, his Honda damaged, fighting with wildcards Chaz Davies and Miguel Duhamel. On lap eight, he was lapping around three seconds slower than the rest of the field and ahead of only Hopkins on the timing screens, prompting him to retire eventually. Before the race, an authorized biography on Hayden and his brothers--The Haydens: Nicky, Tommy, & Roger, from OWB to MotoGP—timed to coincide with his return to the US Grand Prix. He bounced back at the next race in the Czech Republic, scoring another third place podium. On Saturday, Hayden qualified 0.280 seconds behind Casey Stoner in second place, but slipped to fourth after a poor getaway at the line. He would eventually pass his teammate Pedrosa to hold on to third place on lap two, a position he