swamped, as rider after rider passed. His slide was not as precipitous as that of the two Kawasaki riders, who saw their 4th and 7th spots on the grid turn into 12th and 14th by the end of the lap, but after just three turns, Rossi had been relegated from

seems to hold the copyright on charging his way through the field in spectacular fashion, and if he could only find a little consistency, he could yet feature heavily in the championship.The Gentle SlideWith Elias past, Hayden's rearward progress

the cars from sliding out sideways while going through corners at very high revs. But cars have much wider tires and a good deal more grip through corners, and having the stability of four wheels, are much less unsettled by gear changes halfway through

. Not at Estoril. For a lap and a half Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa pushed their machines to the ragged edge and beyond. For corner after corner, they slid their way round the track, sliding the front on corner entry, both tires through the apex, and smoking

, and hold the inside line through Mandeveen, the first of the double right-handers at the southern extremity of the Assen circuit. As they headed back towards the line, Hayden removed any lingering doubts about his refound form, sliding the rear out of Hoge

highside of the year. Though not quite as stratospheric as his tumble at Shanghai, Lorenzo had plenty of air before coming down with a bang on the track, and sliding through the gravel. The reigning 250 champion immediately grabbed his ankle, clearly

times into concrete results.The Long GoodbyeThe other team which have so far failed to convert is the Tech 3 Yamaha team. Makoto Tamada seems to be continuing his slow but inevitable slide into obscurity, and for the second season running, you have

of the bag, it would have to be wild man Elias, whose spectacular sliding style has won him many fans in the stands, but also many enemies in the paddock. With the memory of what happened in the first corner last year, many a rider will have a wary eye

right to left with the front already at the limit of adhesion, attempting not to end sliding ungracefully along the grass after losing the front. The track flows on around the back section, through the Old Hairpin, and round Schwantz and McLeans, before

of sliding the bike around at Assen was a return to the form which we have not seen from Hayden for a while now, last year, because he had a title lead to defend, and this year, because the 800 cc Honda was not set up to suit his style. So a reinvigorated