The Estoril drama of the 2006 season: a black day for Repsol Honda

It was the fifth lap of the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix. Nicky Hayden was in third place – exactly where the championship leader was supposed to be. Then, on the inside of a left-hand bend, his own team-mate suddenly appeared: Dani Pedrosa, the rookie in the Repsol Honda works team, lost the front wheel whilst braking and slid into Hayden. Both Hondas flew into the gravel trap. The American, who had led the World Championship since the third round of the season, knelt in the gravel, stunned, and pounded the ground with his fist.

Today, 20 years on, that moment is nothing more than a footnote in history. At the time, it caused a huge stir. A works rider knocking his own team-mate out of the title race – the incident made the news even outside the world of sport, was dubbed ‘title suicide’ and kept the paddock buzzing right up until Valencia.

Yet Pedrosa was anything but a bully. Throughout his career, the Spaniard was regarded as a gentleman of the sport: quiet, highly professional, three-time World Championship runner-up, 31 Grand Prix victories, and hardly ever involved in any controversy over the years. Estoril was the big exception – a panic manoeuvre in his first year in the premier class.

Hayden, who had not crashed once earlier that season and had finished every other race, made no secret of his frustration. “I don’t know what to say, it just hurts,” he said. Above all, the lack of coordination amongst the Honda riders bothered him: “We should have had a plan. Fifteen races down, a world title at stake and seven other Hondas on the track.”

Nicky Hayden war stinksauer

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Nicky Hayden on Dani Pedrosa: “I know he must be feeling awful”

And yet, at the height of his disappointment, Hayden showed his class. He refused to point the finger at Pedrosa. “I don’t sign his pay cheques, so I can’t tell him what to do,” he said after the race, adding: “I know he must be feeling awful.” Pedrosa came to Hayden’s motorhome after the race, and the two shook hands. The American knew there was no malice behind it.

The sporting damage was enormous. Because Toni Elias won at the front, Rossi, in second place, was denied the full points – yet it was enough for him to take the lead in the World Championship for the first time that season. Hayden’s comfortable lead had turned into a deficit.

Ahead of the season finale in Valencia – which went on to make history in its own right – the title race was wide open once more: Rossi led on 244 points, with Hayden following on 236. ‘Kentucky Kid’ now needed a helping hand and a strong performance of his own – or for the then-dominant rider to lose his nerve. In the end, Nicky Hayden did go on to become MotoGP World Champion in 2006.