Honda man reached 12th.The Kawasakis propped up the back of the field once again, Ant West finishing ahead of his troubled team mate John Hopkins. To finish 13th and 14th was especially disappointing, after the strong results the team had posted at Brno

Hopkins got by on the last lap, the Kawasaki man finishing in 10th, and pushing Toseland down into 11th.Not far behind in 12th was Randy de Puniet, the LCR Honda man not having featured much during the weekend. The Frenchman finished ahead of Marco

on the Suzukis, Capirossi on the Ducati, and Pedrosa on the Honda 800 all finished within 0.1 seconds of each other. Freshly crowned MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden was a couple of tenths behind, but the reason for this would only appear later.The next day

in 1975. No doubt this would annoy Kawasaki's younger rider, Randy de Puniet, as de Puniet is currently enjoying the limelight of his heroic 5th place at Catalunya, achieved with a hugely swollen knee. With the swelling greatly reduced by surgery, de

, with the margin of victory under a second in all but two of the nine premier class races held here so far, the difference within 1/10th of a second at a couple of those races. For the track really rewards guts, determination, and a willingness to stuff the bike

of supporting his former team mate Rossi, Edwards is in with a genuine shot at the win here.James Toseland isn't too bad at Assen either. Like Edwards, he came within inches of victory here in the second Superbike race last year, denied the double by just 0.009

The 2007 MotoGP season has been a long time coming. It has been on the minds of fans and followers since before the 2006 season, for a lot of very good reasons. As an appetizer, there was the knowledge that the cream of the 2005 250 class would

both inside and outside passes viable options into Turn 1. Then, there's the section around the back straight: Two 180 degree turns, too wide to be hairpins, connected by a straight with a blindingly fast left-hand kink. If you need to get past

will get ever closer to a win. It's now been nearly a year since Pedrosa's last win, his longest losing streak since he started racing in the 125 class back in 2001.And if Pedrosa or another Honda rider doesn't win at Barcelona, it will also be Honda

from other teams, a remarkable step, as Pedrosa has been with Honda since entering Grand Prix in 2001. Unless HRC can turn the RC212V around, the unthinkable might happen, and Pedrosa might start to look elsewhere for a ride in 2008. He'll be looking