Round 7 - Moto GP 2011, Assen

[jhansen]

Racing resumes this weekend at the cathedral. Although not as spectacular as it used to be, Assen is still a great race weekend. Stoner will be the favorite and I suspect Super Sic will do well also. Dovi is a good bet for a podium. Pedrosa is still out, and it seems sure that Aoyama will take his place on the Repsol bike for this event. That sums up the Honda riders, since it’s useless to talk about Elias. Can Yamaha make a dent? On paper this seems like a good track for them, but then again we thought that at Lemans. Both Tech 3 are walking wounded with Crutchlow giving it a go this weekend.

It’s getting interesting over at Ducati (read frantic). Ducati are bringing a frankenbike for Rossi in the form of the GP11.1, which is the 2012 chassis mated with the 2011 engine. This will be interesting to watch. It also means they are essentially testing in public, which quite frankly they might as well given their current form. Hayden doesn’t get the 11.1 due to his engine allocation trouble. He should get it at Laguna. He does get some additional parts though.