Haydon top Brit on MotoGP debut.

James Haydon completed a promising MotoGP debut by bringing his Proton KR V5 home in 12th place in Saturday's Qatar Prix, and in turn claiming Brit honours after overtaking James Ellison on the final lap.

Haydon was riding for one race in place of injured team regular Kurtis Roberts, who will make his racing return at next weekend's Malaysian GP. It is eight years since the English rider last raced in GPs - when it was still the 500cc two-stroke class. He has been racing in World and British Superbikes since then.

Team regular Nobuatsu Aoki led Hayden for the early part of the race, before the Japanese crashed out, victim of a freak corner-entry crash. After the race, the team were still investigating data to try to pin down the reason.

Haydon was by then already involved with fellow British Superbike racer James Ellison, and the pair scrapped for the rest of the 22-lap race, with Haydon saving his best to sweep past his WCM mounted rival on the last lap.

"I was too quick on the clutch at the start and went sideways on the line, so I was basically last into turn one, though I nipped past Ellison under braking on the second corner," recalled James.

"I was behind Nobu and pushing, then I lost the front big style twice on two consecutive laps. Then I saw Nobu crash, so I backed off a little and I was back with Ellison.

"I let him lead for a while... he wasn't going to get away, and I got a good rhythm, but when I passed him he came back by me again, so I thought I should save my energy and hope for a clear last lap... and it worked out," he revealed.

"I want to say a massive thank you to Proton Team KR and Dunlop, first for the opportunity and second for the excellent job they did getting the bike how I like it. My aim was to finish in the points, and though the attrition helped, you still have to be there at the end," concluded the well spoken Brit.

"James had a good weekend. Step by step and session by session he worked on set up and feeling, and meshed really well with everybody. His points were well deserved," added team manager Chuck Aksland.