Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden is taking a measured approach to being nerfed off on the first lap of Motegi's MotoGP race by Yuki Takahashi but is clearly pretty angry about the whole thing.

The 2006 MotoGP World Champion was taken out going into turn four by the Japanese rider but was escaped unscathed, even though he landed on his already injured back with the resulting scuff marks in an identical place on his leathers to the marks left after his Qatar high-side.

“That was exactly what we didn’t need. I got a decent start and I think I was up a couple of positions but just going down into the hairpin, which is a slow hard-braking corner, I was on my line and Takahashi just took me dow," said the American.

"There was no warning - I didn’t even hear anything! I don’t want to say much about that, I don’t want to look like a cry-baby but, you know, it was the first lap… luckily I feel okay. I actually landed in the same place on my back as the crash in Qatar and my leathers and helmet have got exactly the same marks.

"It’s a shame because this weekend I honestly felt we were making some progress. I felt we had better communication going on and we worked more comfortably from the first day. I know we were never looking at a great result but I felt I could have been competitive today. Anyway, we have to move forward and to look to the next race.”