Friday, 30 July 2010 09:43 by Claudio Porrozzi

Perhaps Maurizio Flammini is starting to get under the skin of Carmelo Ezpeleta, considering the comments he made during an interview with Michael Rohrer of German magazine Motorrad.

With Dorna being accustomed to finding very little competition and opposition, Flammini's Brno press conference regarding 1000cc motors in MotoGP must not have been well received in Spain.

The proof comes in the tone of Ezpeleta's comments, translated here from German: "I don't care at all about what Maurizio Flammini has to say. He has nothing to do with this.  The MotoGP regulations are like this, and for the moment they will not change.  If something must be changed, it is not Flammini's decision, but that of the FIM which matters."

The harsh tone and lack of subtlety also come through in his response to a question about the FIM document sent to Infront, which clarifies the definition of "production based": "The FIM has not taken any decisions at this point.  Flammini's opinion has no meaning to me, and his WSBK series is a second class championship, considering the spectator numbers they had for Brno compared to what we had for Sachsenring.  That says everything right there."

This and other comments make it clear that war is not being waged, and we await a prompt response from Infront on these tough comments.  Ezpeleta has already expressed a somewhat contemptuous view of Superbike in his weekly Solo Moto columns, but the level of hostility seems to have increased considerably.

FIM President Vito Ippolito is expected here at Silverstone tomorrow, and aside from working for his own reelection, he must address this disagreement which the Federation is squarely in the middle of.  Considering the contracts and rules packages in place, the FIM have very little room for maneuvering, and so the negotiations and final outcome should be very interesting to see.