I doubt that anyone has ever thought that Nicky Hayden could be so fun and mischievous, traits that MotoGP fans normally associate with rider Valentino Rossi, but take a look at this sticker that Nicky had made up, we didn’t see during Saturday’s qualifying session, but it was on Hayden’s bike on Friday.
Obviously the Honda/Repsol bosses blew a fuse when they saw it and asked Nicky to kindly remove the sticker before going live in front of millions of TV watchers around the world.
The 69 N.
Hypocrite sticker was a very direct reference to Alberto Puig’s accusations saying that Hayden was a hypocrite and has been using Dani Pedrosa’s settings because the American is totally incapable of setting up his own bike.
Hayden said: “It was just a joke, really, everybody knows the comments from my buddy – he called me a hypocrite a few weeks ago and I just made the sticker up as a bit of a joke.
It wasn’t some malicious thought or trying to be a punk.
” “I hope nobody took it the wrong way, it was just for a good laugh.
A request came to take it off because the bosses really didn’t like it.
” “I didn’t mean to be a big punk like that, but it’s good fun.
But they asked me to take it off, and I don’t want to cause no major drama.
We got the picture.
” “There’s been a lot of drama, but I know you guys (the media) like it,” said Hayden.
“Nobody really wants to talk about tyres or front forks, or this and that.
When people call each other out and it gets personal, honestly we all like it.
”You’ve got admit that Hayden has a wild sense of humour when he refers to Puig as his buddy …….