It may be early in the season and even though the team is red is doesn't have Ferrari written on it, but the fact that Nicky Hayden sat behind team leader Valentino Rossi without even showing him a wheel for the whole of yesterday's Laguna Seca MotoGP race smells.

Hayden was close enough on more than one occasion to point out to The Doctor he was right there. If you have a look at the lap analysis, there isn't a mistake by the 2006 world champion to indicate Rossi was running a pace that he couldn't match.

What is equally pongy is their done-for-the-camera hugs after the race. Except Rossi looked massively apologetic and Nicky massively unimpressed by the whole thing...