Biaggi's machine)—handing Troy Bayliss third and Tamada fourth in the process. One lap later, he lost the front of his RCV heading onto the back straight and span out into retirement, much to the dismay of the watching Michael Jordan. Hayden finished eighth in the championship with 117 points, 187 points behind the champion Valentino Rossi. He scored two podiums and retired five times—the most times he retired in one season in his career. 2005 After a relatively poor season in 2004, many people critiqued his performances and stated that he should be kicked out of the Factory Honda team. However, things would improve for him in 2005. At the first round of the season in Spain, Hayden retired for the first time this season. Hayden was in a strong position to finish third—overtaking Valentino Rossi's Yamaha in the early part of the race before being demoted to third by the same Rossi—maintaining a two-second gap to fourth place Marco Melandri. With eight laps to go and 1.5 seconds behind the front runners Sete Gibernau and Rossi, Hayden lost the front of his factory RCV as he tipped in to final corner, sending him into the gravel trap and retirement. In contrast, Hayden scored consistent points in the next six races—the Portuguese, Chinese, French, Italian and Catalan and Dutch rounds—finishing seventh, ninth, sixth twice, fifth and fourth, respectively. His breakthrough came at the United States GP, held at the Laguna Seca Raceway. The Californian venue had not been on the calendar since 1994, meaning that only a handful of riders had experience with this track. Australian Troy Bayliss and American Colin Edwards knew this track well from their Superbike days, as well as Hayden, who won an AMA race at the circuit in 2000 and taken fourth in a World Superbike wildcard outing in 2002. Rossi on the other hand, had never raced here, giving these riders an advantage. On Saturday, Hayden took his first ever pole position in the MotoGP class, beating former teammate Rossi by 0.354 seconds. On race day, Bayliss would be battling him for the first spot when the lights went out, but held on and built a gap of a second by the end of the opening lap. Rossi passed Bayliss for second place but 2.6 seconds separating Hayden and Rossi by lap 10. On lap 16, Edwards overtook Rossi for second place and cut