The historic Circuit van Drenthe at Assen has been part of the world championship since the start, and had hosted major races even before that. The truncated modern version is still a challenge for the riders, more so than many of the contemporary venues, and it has seen some good competition. The field for this year’s race contained several former major Assen winners, led by Rossi with six GP victories. MotoGP rookie Jorge Lorenzo had three wins, as did former Superbike contenders Colin Edwards and Chris Vermeulen, with other successes having gone to Marco Melandri, Pedrosa, Nicky Hayden, Toní Elías, Anthony West and James Toseland.

Two-time Assen winner Loris Capirossi was on that list to begin with, but the 35-year-old Italian suffered a big crash on the Friday, hurting an arm, and was unable to continue. Rizla Suzuki’s Donington substitute, Ben Spies, opted not to take over after missing practice up to that point. Kawasaki rider John Hopkins got as far as setting a qualifying time, but he also crashed at speed and would be a second non-starter, reducing the field to just sixteen.

In common with the preceding races, there were contrasting fortunes for the Marlboro Ducati riders in qualifying. Stoner made it three pole positions in a row, with team-mate Melandri slowest in P17 - the last two then gained a slot in the absence of Hopkins, who would have been fifteenth. Pedrosa put his Repsol Honda into second position, with partner Hayden fourth. Rossi was third with the Bridgestone-shod Fiat Yamaha, and Lorenzo was seventh with the similar bike on Michelin tyres.

The third Honda was that of LCR rider Randy de Puniet, fifth, and then came Tech 3 Yamaha man Edwards. Toseland put their other bike into P13. The sole Suzuki was that of Vermeulen in eighth, from Shin’ya Nakano (Gresini Honda). Alice Ducati rider Sylvain Guintoli managed his best start position of the season with tenth, from Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Honda), Alex de Angelis (Gresini), Toseland, Elías (Alice), West (Kawasaki) and Melandri.

The race was in dry and bright conditions, with Pedrosa getting into the lead from the start, followed by Stoner, Hayden and Nakano. The riders following got into trouble at de Strubben, the horseshoe left-hander after the first couple of right bends. Rossi was chasing de Puniet and was moving to the inside for the turn. The rear of his Yamaha slid out, and he went into the side of the Honda. They both crashed, and Edwards was held up by the accident. Randy was out, but Valentino was able to get going again, although half a minute down.

Behind the first four, Dovizioso now emerged in fifth, from Vermeulen, Lorenzo, Toseland, Guintoli, Melandri, Elías, Edwards and West. Another lap one crash saw de Angelis also exit the race. With Rossi chasing after the field, his rivals got into their race for victory. The final chicane at Assen, called the Geert Timmer Bocht, or GT, is a right-left-right that allows for overtaking. Stoner took the opportunity to pass Pedrosa there, braking on the inside on the way into the first apex.

Pedrosa’s chances to respond seemed short lived, as now Stoner set the pace and began to pull away from the Honda rider. In fact, positions two to five were held by Honda machinery, with the Repsol bikes of Pedrosa and Hayden also moving clear of Nakano and Dovizioso, who had Vermeulen tagging on behind. As Casey moved into a two-second lead, Dani pulled away from Nicky, and the race was on for fourth.

Dovizioso overtook Nakano to be the top non-factory rider, and Vermeulen was able to follow suit, with a move on the inside into GT. They continued racing round in a close group until Chris moved up once more, diving to the inside of Andrea at de Strubben. Meanwhile, there were Yamaha riders making progress further down the field. Edwards had been quick to pass Elías and Melandri, and then he made it three Ducatis when he also got by Guintoli. This soon put him up with M1 colleagues Lorenzo and Toseland in the race for seventh.

The race for the win was going the way it had at Donington, with Stoner getting further out of reach all the time. Three seconds became closer to four, and behind him Pedrosa was no longer within striking range for Hayden, who was well clear of the rest. All along, Rossi was putting in good laps and getting closer to the tail enders from the main pack, which meant Elías first. West was about to go out in a lowside crash, so this meant Rossi was chasing down P13.

Edwards caught and passed Toseland, then he went by Lorenzo at Haarbocht with a move on the inside for the first right-hander. Before long he had got away from the 21-year-old, and that also saw him join in the group racing for fourth, behind Vermeulen, Dovizioso and Nakano. Andrea took over the point when he passed Chris along the snaking Veenslang back straight. The next move saw Colin go past Shin’ya at the S Bocht, a left kink at the end of the main straight before Haarbocht.

Edwards’ progress, from P12 after the first lap hold up, now saw him pass Vermeulen inside at de Strubben, and pass Dovizioso on the inside into GT. He was fourth now, but seemingly too far adrift of Hayden to get any further forward. By now, Elías had gone ahead of Melandri, and Rossi was just six seconds behind the man in red and white. With nine laps to go this was down to 2.3s.

The final laps saw Stoner consolidate his position with an eight-second lead and therefore a convincing third win of the year. Pedrosa duly took second and moved back ahead of Rossi in the points. Edwards had moved clear of his nearest pursuers, still over three seconds behind Hayden with a few laps to go. Unlike two years earlier, the luck was with Colin on the last lap at Assen. On the way out of the chicane, Nicky was suddenly moving slowly, the Honda seemingly on the last dregs of fuel. Edwards was there in an instant and powered by for an unlikely tenth GP podium result. Hayden reached the finish for fourth.

Dovizioso retained fifth at the flag, but behind him there were some changes. Nakano passed Vermeulen when the Suzuki man ran wide, and with Lorenzo catching them both at the time. Jorge took a place from Chris on the inside at the de Bult corner, a V-shaped left. He then went sixth at the expense of Shin’ya at de Strubben. It was at de Bult where Vermeulen went inside Nakano to seal the final order for this group.

Toseland was a steady ninth, with Guintoli tenth despite an off-track moment. Both Nakano and Guintoli took their best race results of the season to date. Meanwhile, Rossi had got up to Melandri and got by him at GT. He used the same move on the brakes on the way in when he caught Elías, and that put him eleventh at the end, to take five valuable points. Elías was in front of Melandri to the end, so that the works Ducatis finished the way they started - with one rider first and the other last.

Casey Stoner was truly back as a force in MotoGP, looking for the second race like the man who had been on top in 2007. Valentino Rossi’s pace had also been good, but the early incident cost him the chance of seeing whether he could match or challenge the Australian race winner. Dani Pedrosa couldn’t match Stoner, but he kept out of trouble and collected points as he continued in pursuit of the world championship title. Rossi has a bit of ground to recover now, and Stoner only edged closer in third.

Class rookie Andrea Dovizioso looked good again on his customer Honda, enough for continued rumours that he will replace Nicky Hayden in the factory team next year. And there was encouragement for Shin’ya Nakano after a good start. But the big story was about Colin Edwards. His best chance of a GP win had been at Assen in 2006, where he managed to crash right at the end in a frantic battle with Hayden. After his ride through the field, the podium place at Hayden’s expense seemed a bit like compensation. But will he, like all the others, be chasing Stoner’s Ducati next time out?

Standings after nine races: Pedrosa 171; Rossi 167; Stoner 142; Lorenzo 114; Edwards 98; Dovizioso 79; Hayden 70; Toseland 60; Nakano and Vermeulen 57; Capirossi 51; Elías 33.
Yamaha 196; Honda 171; Ducati 147; Suzuki 80; Kawasaki 41.

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