The unhappy Jorge Lorenzo’s troubled start to his second year with Ducati got a bit more so in Argentina, after the Spanish Movistar TV network put the cat among the pigeons. They showed a highly provocative quote from an as-yet unbroadcast interview with Lorenzo in which he put the squeeze on his team-mate Dovizioso.

The Italian, he said, had been trying to undermine him since both joined the 125 class at the same time in 2002.

The exact context was not clear, and Jorge declined to answer direct questions, saying he was in “race mode”, and that people should wait to see the full interview, to be broadcast before the next race in Texas.

But many took it as a sign of a forthcoming fall-out with Ducati, in spite of assurances of the opposite from the team.

Lorenzo’s reputation for sometimes wilful independence had already been given a boost when he dispensed with his new “riding coach” Alex Debon after just one race. In his early years the young rider had a public falling out with his manager-father, and has since then made other abrupt changes to his support crew.