Hopefully these things don't happen in threes.

It's been a remarkable week for candor by the normally double top secret at the minimum HRC. With Nick Hayden rolling into the final two rounds of the championship most enthusiasts are wondering two things regarding the American's current situation. Has his mysterious clutch problem been fixed so that his bike launches as well as the, um, other Hondas? And what sort of team orders scenario is HRC working out for these two rounds?

Quick answers: reportedly HRC can't fix his clutch and there will be no team orders.

No, really.

HRC exec Satoru Horiike told Eurosport this week that there will be no team orders to help Hayden win the title. None. In fact they say that there have never been any team orders at HRC because doing so wouldn't be good for a variety of people, including fans and mechanics.

Despite the massive engineering power of Honda, a company that brought the world a six-cylinder 250, the RVF750 endurance racer—which weighed an incredible three hundred pounds with lights in 1991—and the awe-inspiring five-cylinder RC211V MotoGP bike, Horiike infers HRC has been brought to its knees by the clutch problem on Hayden's bike. He says it can't be fixed.

Is all this just a fictional smokescreen to keep Rossi and Yamaha guessing before HRC drop the news on them that (cue Star Wars music) 'this deathstar is fully operational', or has it really happened, Honda has met an engineering problem that they can't actually solve?

On the good news front, elder brother Tommy Hayden flew in to Estoril this week to give his middle brother some support throughout the weekend.

Stay tuned. (Like we need to remind you)