The battle for the 2010 FIM MotoGP World Championship continues apace this weekend. The TIM TT Assen comes just one week after the excitement of Silverstone, where victory for Jorge Lorenzo gave the Mallorcan a 37-point advantage in the championship standings. Lorenzo will be looking to turn the screw on his rivals even further this weekend in the Netherlands, but the Fiat Yamaha rider was adamant that he would be approaching Saturday’s Dutch TT like any other race. “I arrive here after a great victory, but my approach will not change as a result,” said Lorenzo during the pre-event press conference. I have had three wins here in the past, one on the 125 and two on the 250, so I can say that this is one of my strongest tracks.” Lorenzo took time out ahead of the press conference to check the modifications to the Ruskenhoek corner, the only changes to the track since the current championship leader finished second in the MotoGP race last year. “I went out on the scooter to have a look at Ruskenhoek, which is certainly a lot faster than it was before. Having seen the modified corner on television during the Superbike race here I had some concerns about the changes but, now I’ve seen it up close, the corner looks fine.” Andrea Dovizioso is on a rich vein of form at present, having scored four podium finishes in five races and with his second place at Silverstone last time out moving the Italian up to second in the championship. The Repsol Honda rider will be pushing hard for his first win of the 2010 campaign this weekend, as he looks to close the gap on Lorenzo in the championship. “The second place in Silverstone was good for motivation, both for myself and the team,” declared Dovizioso. “At the beginning of the season we were fast, but now we’re also consistent enough to run at the front regularly. Lorenzo and the Yamaha are really strong, but we’ve made big steps and we’re confident we can push to catch him. Now we just need to fight!” Ben Spies has been something of a revelation in his debut MotoGP season, with new circuits causing no problems for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider. Spies took his first podium finish last time out in Silverstone, but was quick to play down his chances of a repeat performance this weekend at Assen, despite this being one of the few circuits at which he’s raced previously. “It’s good to come to a track I’ve been to before, and one that I like,” said Spies. “I think the bike will be good here, but I know it will be tough to fight for a podium again this weekend. Maybe people will expect me to be on the podium every weekend now, but I’m more realistic because I know just how hard Silverstone was.” Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner has had something of a difficult start to the season, but advanced up the championship standings to eighth position, after fighting back from a disastrous start to eventually claim fourth place last time out at Silverstone. Unlike many of this rivals, Stoner didn’t head out to take a look at the modifications to the Ruskenhoek corner, but the Australian did have a comment to make on the circuit, and the recent changes, during the pre-event press conference. “Racing here now doesn’t have the same kick as it did when we raced on the old circuit, of which there are only a few parts left. I’ve struggled at Ruskenhoek for the last three seasons, so it’s nice that they’ve changed my bogey corner for this year!” Alvaro Bautista is another rider who’s had to contend with a difficult start to the season, after the Spaniard sustained a shoulder injury in a motocross crash ahead of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Highsiding himself off the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R during practice in Le Mans didn’t help matters either, but the former 125cc World Champion now says he’s fast approaching full fitness once again and looking forward to continuing his debut season in MotoGP. “In Mugello I was riding like someone on the street, because the injury meant I couldn’t ride the way I wanted to. At Silverstone the injury was better and it was only at the end of the race that I started to feel pain and struggled to turn the bike. This weekend I don’t know, but I think that for my home race in Barcelona it’s possible the shoulder will be back to 100 percent again.” Earlier in the day a boat race was staged along the Assen canal, pitching the riders against a handpicked team of journalists from the MotoGP media centre. With the power to weight ratio being as important in boat racing as it is in motorcycle racing the riders opted for a lightweight crew consisting of Bradley Smith, Sandro Cortese, Claudio Corti, Jasper Iwema, Shoya Tomizawa and Hector Barbera. The tactic paid off, with the riders easily beating the slightly heavier journalists, both in the practice run and the race proper. After the race both teams were treated to drinks and cake on another boat moored at the end of the canal. The cakes were all specially decorated to mark the 80th year of the TT Assen. More, from a press release issued by Blusens STX: MASHEL AL NAIMI GOES BACK TO THE COMPETITION AFTER MISSING THE LAST TWO GGPP, YONNY HERNÁNDEZ HOPES HE WILL DO A GOOD RACE LIKE IN SILVERSTONE AND TITO RABAT HAS THE AIM OF BEING AGAIN IN THE BATTLE FOR PODIUM AND GO UP IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING Assen, 23rd June 2010. The team Blusens-STX introduces in the Grand Prix of Holland the comeback of Mashel Al Naimi. This is the sixth round of the MotoGP World Championship. The rider from Doha has missed the races of Mugello and Silverstone due to the recovery of a surgery for the compartment syndrome that was practiced to him by Dr. Villamor on the 26th of May. This week, the Qatari rider has visited the doctor in Madrid and he has been told by the doctor that he can participate again in the competition. Yonny Hernández arrives in Assen with the goal of repeating the good performance he did in Silverstone. In 125cc, Tito Rabat believes the Dutch circuit will still be one of his best circuits, because his aim is to be in the front group and battle for the podium. 68 YONNY HERNÁNDEZ: “I feel good about Silverstone’s race, I think we did a remarkable job fighting for the top ten and I hope we will do it again in Assen, just with a different outcome. I am very motivated with this new event of the World Championship! I do not care about racing on Saturday, but I know nothing about the circuit. I will try to watch videos online before Thursday to get an idea. After the last Grand Prix we were thinking about changing the cupola of the bike for another one that protects me more, but I do not know if it will be ready for Assen.Otherwise we will use it in Montmeló.” 95 MASHEL AL NAIMI: “I am very happy about my comeback. It has been tough for me not to participate in the last two GGPP. I would like to thank QMMF for letting me be in Mugello and Silverstone. I did not want to lose contact with the people and I have enjoyed supporting Anthony. This week I visited Dr. Villamor and he has aproved my comeback to the competition. I think I am completely recovered from my lesion, I do not have pain and I feel my forearms flexible. My objective in Assen is to get the feeling back and keep evolving in this very competitive class. I have never been in this circuit before, butI hope I will adapt fast in order to finish Sunday’s race.” 12 TITO RABAT: “We are going to one of the circuits I enjoy the most. The track is a little bit like karting, slim and pretty technical, fast, with strong breaking and both fast and slow curves. It is variated, which I like. The four times I have been here I have done good races, although the results were not great. In 2008, with KTM, I classified 9th for the race and I was the leader in the last lap, but a mistake put me sixth, which is my best result here so far. Last year I could not finish. We need to do a good qualifying session, we must be with the first group. If we do not make a big step we will not have real possibilities to make a podium. We left Silverstone being fourth in the World Championship standing, and I want to leave Assen being fourth.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Rizla Suzuki has set up camp in the Assen paddock for the second race in a tough mid-season schedule as it prepares its attack on the Dutch TT. Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista are heading to the race with positive attitudes, despite a difficult weekend last time out at Silverstone. Capirossi had a strong race at Assen in 2009 and was battling for a top-five position before another rider forced him off the track on the last corner, causing the Italian racer to finish ninth after fighting to stay onboard. Bautista has a proud history at the Dutch TT in the smaller classes, with victory and pole position in 2008 on a 250cc machine, as well as a further podium finish and front row start in 2007 also on a 250 – this feat mirrored what he achieved in 2006 as he also secured a front-row start and a top-three finish in the 125cc class.. The Dutch TT is traditionally held on the final Saturday of June and this year’s event is in a run of five races in six weekends for the MotoGP circus, which started in England last Sunday before culminating at Laguna Seca in America at the end of July. The Assen circuit has had a small alteration to the layout for this year’s race that sees the lap distance decrease by a few metres to 4,542m. A favourite with many fans and riders alike, the Assen circuit is the only venue to have held a motorcycle Grand Prix since the beginning of the championship in 1949; it is also the 80th anniversary of the running of the Dutch TT. Since its inaugural race in 1925, the event has been run every year since then with the exception of the period 1940 to 1945. Rizla Suzuki takes to the track for the first time on Thursday afternoon for an hour of practice; this is followed by a further hour on Friday morning. Qualifying will take place in the afternoon and the riders will line-up for round six of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) on Saturday 26th June. Loris Capirossi: “We need to re-group and come out strong at Assen, we know that we can perform so much better than we did at Silverstone and we need to show it. The whole team is working so hard and we are always trying to find the best solution, maybe we just need a bit of luck to go our way. I have had a couple of unlucky races at Assen in Rizla Suzuki colours, I was injured in 2008 and couldn’t race and then I was knocked off the track at the end of last year’s race when I was going for a top-five position, hopefully I can get that bit of luck on my side here and it will make a difference!” Álvaro Bautista: “I really like the second half of the Assen track, it is very complicated and it flows nicely so it makes for some good racing. The first part is not so good since it was changed, but it is still quite demanding and physical to ride. I am feeling stronger every time I get on the bike now and during the race at Silverstone I felt like I was able to ride the bike how I wanted for the first time since my injury. That is a good sign coming here and if I can continue with that then I am sure we can have a good race.”