Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

Or perhaps not. Max Biaggi turned 33 today, and also sat on the grid for the 100th time in the blue riband GP class. But that's about all this weekend will have been memorable for, at least as far as the Roman is concerned.

Assen. The oddball GP round that takes place on a Saturday and is almost always wet. Except for the rare occasions when it is either baking hot or can't decide what it is going to do. The joy of arriving at the circuit in the pouring rain on Sunday morning, nice and early to get a good view, only to discover an empty, muddy field full of the detritus of a great race. Because it happened yesterday. Be thankful, gentle reader, that you are seeing it here rather than there. It wasn't me, but a good friend, and he still carries the emotional scars.

But this year, the weekend started off the way many others have, The weather was changeable, with nobody quite sure whether to run wets, intermediates or to take their lives in their hands and go for slicks. However, when it all counted the sun came out and dried the track, just in time for Valentino Rossi to demonstrate that not only does the Yamaha go quite well in the wet, it's not slow on a dry track either. Rossi took pole position from fellow Yamaha pilot Carlos Checa after struggling to find a wet setup. Not only that but he demolished the circuit record as well, just to make sure of things. Sete Gibernau, who must have been hot favourite at the start, was banished to 3rd while Marco melandri, recovering from surgery on his right arm, put his Yamaha fourth. Shinya Nakano qualified fifth, the highest grid position for a Kawasaki since Kork Ballington put his evil handling but brutally fast KR500 in fourth at Imatra in 1981. And the birthday boy? Max Biaggi struggled with grip and handling problems, ending up qualifying in a lowly 12th place. That's the joint lowest he has ever qualified, although to be fair he then went on to win the other race he started that far back - in Australia in 2000.

Raceday came and the clouds went. Well, lightened a bit, anyway. And that must have made Rossi smile even wider under his helmet, just as clouds of doom were gathering on the fourth row around Max Biaggi, who surely had the mother of all battles to fight just to keep the title in sight, let alone to have a crack at it.

The flag dropped and the field all took off cleanly, Carlos Checa making the initial running after a storming start but falling to the combined assaults of Rossi and Gibernau before the opening lap was though. Alex Barros mugged Nakano and Melandri to get up near the front as well, but the real achievement was that Max Biaggi started the first lap in 12th and finished it in fifth. Give that man a 'Man of the lap' award. By the end of lap 2, Barros had swarmed past Checa, who gradually faded back into the following pack as his rear tyre cooked and went off. Gibernau was at the front of the field, able to hold Rossi off but unable to break away. Barros in third looked increasing threatening until he spectacularly out-braked Rossi on lap 10, snatching second place away, only to yield it a few yards later when another out-braking maneuver, this time on himself, left him in the gravel trap and out of the race. A few laps earlier, Marco Melandri had managed to muscle his way back in front of Biaggi and now inherited third place. And so it remained, with Gibernau leading Rossi leading Melandri leading Biaggi. Until more than halfway through the last lap, when Rossi stuffed his Yamaha into the lead, holding it by the slimmest of margins. Then it all so nearly went wrong as the Yamaha rider lost the front end tipping into the penultimate corner. Gibernau hit the back of Rossi's bike hard enough to snap off his front mudguard and, though both riders' consummate skills kept them upright, the Spaniard lost so much ground that the drag to the line was a forgone conclusion and Rossi took his fourth win of the season by a yawning gulf of nearly half a second. Then there was a long, long pause before third place man Marco Melandri crossed the line, nearly ten seconds behind the leader and just a few tenths ahead of the hotly pursuing Biaggi, Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards. Nicky Hayden also deserves an honourable mention for getting himself up to fifth from a lowly 16th on the grid. Reuben Xaus brought the unofficial team D'Antin Ducati in just ahead of Loris Capirossi on the official bike, with Carlos Checa ninth and Neil Hodgson achieving his best yet result in tenth place on the second D'Antin Ducati.

As for the rest of the Brits, Shane Byrne qualified his Aprilia well enough but retired on lap 11. Jeremy McWilliams on the second Aprilia came home 15th, bring in a valuable championship point, and Chris Burns on the Harris WCM came in 17th, gaining experience and all to rare kudos for actually finishing a round.

So at the end of the day, Rossi and Gibernau are tied on points but Rossi leads the championship on the number of race wins - 4 against two. Rossi is the first person to take a Yamaha to three back-to-back victories in this class since Eddie Lawson managed the feat back in 1986. I've a feeling that there are still a few other Eddie Lawson comparisons to come as well...

Results

1 V Rossi, Yamaha
2 S Gibernau, Honda
3 M Melandri, Yamaha
4 M Biaggi, Honda
5 N Hayden, Honda
6 C Edwards, Honda
7 R Xaus, Ducati
8 L Capirossi, Ducati
9 C Checa, Yamaha
10 N Hodgson, Ducati

Championship Standing after 2 rounds

126 V Rossi
126 S Gibernau
93 M Biaggi
56 C Checa
54 M Melandri
54 C Edwards
48 A Barros
42 L Capirossi
38 N Hayden
33 N Abe