And indeed today he could, as a strike by Italian journalists meant that, for once, Valentino Rossi was not entirely submerged beneath a crowd of quote-hungry paparazzi. Wherever he goes, the man is a phenomenon and is rather in demand, especially by a voracious home press who can never get enough of the man.

Now Assen is a circuit much loved by Rossi. Much loved, in truth, by most of the riders. It has a unique character, being almost completely flat but very fast and flowing. And although changes over the last few years have, it's true, reduced it to a shadow of its former self, Assen remains one of the finest rider's circuits on the calendar. As a racer, the only criticism I could level at the place is that it's a little narrow, which can make overtaking quite a challenge at times. But challenging to the rider is entertaining to the crowd, so right now I can't find any fault with Assen at all...

One thing about Assen, though, is the weather. Try as I might, I can't remember a single meeting there where average conditions have prevailed. It's generally either incredibly hot and dry or torrentially wet. Sometimes both within a short time. And so it proved in practice and qualifying. Practice, though dry, started quite warm before becoming decidedly cool and blustery - positively autumnal, in fact - while qualifying went one step further, the North Sea attempting to reclaim Northern Holland by means of an airborne assault.

Practice saw the spoils shared between Rossi and Stoner, with Edwards and de Puniet making guest appearances. But the common thread was Nicky Hayden, running third in all three sessions. Honda finally seem to have accepted that yes, they do have a World Champion in the Repsol team and perhaps they ought to consider trying to make the bike work for him. Whatever has happened, Hayden is an immensely likeable guy as well as a very talented rider and a genuine personality, so it's great to see him starting to reappear where he really belongs.

Qualifying, as I hinted earlier, was a rather different affair as the heavens opened and the wet weather specialists came to the fore. Because conditions were a little changeable, some folk got caught out and either ran out of tyres, laps or time before being able to really show their abilities. Casey Stoner wasn't one of these, though, the championship leader putting in a blinding time that stuck him firmly at the top of the tree. Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden both had appalling sessions, though, ending up eleventh and thirteenth respectively. Chris Vermeulen has shown himself to be pretty handy in the wet, and so it proved today as the young Suzuki rider - one of a very few to have done the double at Assen in World Superbikes - slipped through to take pole by just under two hundredths of a second. And Randy de Puniet is quite good in the wet, too, putting his Kawasaki into third, just over a second behind Stoner. Heading up the second row, Marco Melandri gave the Gresini Honda team something to smile about after their other rider, Toni Elias, put himself out of the running for the next seven months or so in a very nasty practice crash which left him with a badly broken femur. And John Hopkins kept the Rizla Suzuki team smiling with a brilliant ride that kept him in front of Yamaha's Colin Edwards. Row three saw Anthony West qualify his Kawasaki seventh on his second ever MotoGP ride, ahead of Alex Hofmann on the d'Antin Ducati and Dani Pedrosa. Loris Capirossi continued his miserable season with a tenth place on the grid. Mind you, in fairess the dif fence between de Puniet in third and Hayden in thirteenth was just over a second. It wouldn't be unreasonable to describe it as tight.

Now the weather is a fickle old thing, as again I may have hinted before. Race day dawned clear, dry and bright. A typical summer's day, in fact. Something that nobody really had any hard data on. Warmup saw folk trying all sorts of things. Trying a little too hard in some cases, as Casey Stoner went gravel surfing a few minutes before the end of the session. No injuries, and the Australian was able to get a few laps in on his second bike but surely a sign of the pressure that everyone is under at this stage. So as they lined up for the off there must have been a few higher than usual blood pressures in the pit boxes, let alone on the grid.

Lights out and Casey Stoner made a fantastic start, as did Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins. But the real star was Nicky Hayden, who swung out wide, came around the outside of the pack and climbed from his thirteenth place start to an astonishing fifth by the end of first corner. As he said himself after the race, the Kentucky rider doesn't have a whole lot to lose at this stage of the season so he can afford to take slightly bigger gambles than might otherwise be the case. Certainly it paid off this time. The big loser in the start was Randy de Puniet, who made an awful start and was simply gobbled up by the pack, ending the first lap back in tenth place. Up at the pointed end, Hopper slipped past Vermeulen who was struggling with the pace and set off in pursuit of Stoner, the pair of them quickly extending a bit of a gap over the Vermeulen and the rest of the pack. Behind the Suzuki riders, Nicky Hayden despatched fourth placed Marco Melandri, with Pedrosa following him through a lap later. A lap after that, both Repsol riders passed Vermeulen, who was still running at a very respectable pace, and started to close on Hopkins.

Towards the back of the field, Valentino Rossi made up a couple of cautious places at the start and, in his normal style, spent a few laps settling in before upping the pace. And up it he did, reaching the bottom step of the podium after just eight laps. The much anticipated prolonged battle with either Pedrosa or Hayden failed to materialise as Rossi simply rode round them like a trackday instructor in the novices group. A masterclass of controlled aggression followed as Rossi closed down Hopkins, eventually passing him very neatly and taking a full second out of Stoner's lead on the same lap. In what seemed no time at all the Italian was all over the Ducati. But catching someone is a different matter to passing them and Stoner is not only very fast, he also appears totally impervious to pressure. And having "Rossi +0" displayed on your pitboard is about as much pressure as you can get. And so for eleven laps we saw some of the closest, hardest, most controlled racing of the season as Rossi pushed, edged, pressed, bullied, tried pretty well everything. And we saw Stoner making the Ducati incredibly wide, as well as seeing him controlling some rather lurid slides. There was no doubt who was working the hardest, but despite that it seemed as though Rossi just couldn't go quick enough to get past.

Further back, the shenanigans at the front were playing into the hands of the following Honda riders as first Hayden and then Pedrosa managed to pass Hopkins and started to close on the lead pair. And further back still there was even more excitement. Randy de Puniet, no doubt trying to atone for his dreadful start, made a desperate passing attempt on Chris Vermeulen that saw him go for a gap on the inside that simply wasn't there and putting both of them into the gravel. Vermeulen managed to stay on and eventually rejoin after what seemed like an age of paddling across the gravel trap, but his bike was damaged and not performing as well as it might. The deservedly popular young Australian finished sixteenth, outside the points for the first time this season. Anthony West, meantime, was riding like an absolute hero in a group of five or six riders fighting for ninth place. When that group includes the likes of Marco Melandri, Carlos Checa and Loris Capirossi, all of whom are or have bee genuine title contenders, and you are riding your second ever MotoGP then I'd say you have aright to be pretty pleased with yourself. West is a prodigious talent who just might go a long way. The bike seems to be working quite well, too.

With four laps to go, Rossi clearly decided it was time to show what he had in reserve. And to see what Stoner had to answer him with. It seemed that the young Australian really was at his limit, for when Rossi blasted through at the chicane with an absolute classic he was able to pull away with impunity, extending nearly a second lead in one lap. Behind Stoner, the gap back to Hayden had stabilised while the champion had managed to convincingly gap his team-mate in what must have been an incredibly satisfying return to form. Hopkins and the Suzuki came in a respectable fifth, ahead of Colin Edwards with Alex Barros continuing his consistent season. Alex Hofmann won out in the multi-bikebunfight with West an astonishing ninth and a frustrated Melandri crossing the line tenth, beating his bike in fury. Loris Capirossi retired from the race with mechanical problems.

But it wasn't over, even when the chequered flag waved. Casey Stoner's Ducati stopped halfway round the parade lap, the extended tussle with Rossi having used more fuel than planned. And Nicky Hayden had to accept a tow from fellow American John Hopkins as his Honda ran out of fuel at the same time. That's pretty good planning by the teams to send their riders out with exactly enough fuel to do the race and no more - there's no point in carrying more weight than you need after all. Though perhaps it's cutting it a little fine. If Stoner had run out just one lap earlier, for example, then the championship leader would be under serious pressure.

So we're off to Germany in a couple of weeks with Stoner's lead cut to something manageable. Nicky Hayden appears to have found his form and, though there's no way he could win the title outside of a massive pileup taking out the leading pair he could certainly make a respectable showing if he and Honda can carry on working with each other. Pedrosa is starting to look less consistent, and his convincing defeat by his team-mate won't have helped that at all. Whatever, the second half of the season is shaping up to be really rather good...

Dutch MotoGP Results

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
3. Nicky Hayden (Honda)
4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
5. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
6. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
7. Alex Barros (Ducati)
8. Alex Hofmann (Ducati)
9. Anthony West (Kawasaki)
10. Marco Melandri (Honda)

MotoGP standings (after nine rounds)

1. Casey Stoner 185
2. Valentino Rossi 164
3. Daniel Pedrosa 119
4. John Hopkins 94
5. Chris Vermeulen 88
6. Marco Melandri 87
7. Colin Edwards 75
8. Alex Barros 69
9. Loris Capirossi 57
10. Nicky Hayden 57

SB