Dani Pedrosa is on pole for the third race running, Stoner looks menacing in second and has a stack of impressive runs on race tyres, and Marco Melandri is happier with his bike than he's been all year and looking good in third.

Right, that's the boring stuff out of the way; now for the good gossip.

When a French journalist asked what Valentino would do if Bridgestone would not supply him, he replied 'I have to make a decision.' In other words, I might go away and play with a rally car for a year or so.

Rumours of the return of Max are at least partly based in fact. Fausto Gresini's team have been in contact with Biaggi's people but that's as far as it's gone. The Ilmor may also be back, Andrew Pitt has been testing recently and there is some money available. Kenny Roberts team will very shortly know if they have the backing to run two bikes--and if they have they may very well be Ducatis.

No today's best scuttlebutt: Valentino Rossi is not a happy man, in fact is unhappy enough to describe himself as currently being at a bigger disadvantage to the competition than when he joined Yamaha in 2004. It's not just the tyres, although he is still pretty pissed with Michelin. First there's the bike, Valentino says the M1 still has overheating problems and he wonders if a straight four is at an inherent disadvantage to the V4. Whatever, he says, the Yam needs ?something brand new.' Currently he is 10kph down not just on Stoner but also on Dani Pedrosa.

Then, inevitably, there are the tyres. Bridgestone have met with Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta who intimated that if they did not supply Rossi with tyres it would make the implementation of a mono-tyre rule more likely. Subtle, huh? Valentino denied knowing anything about Ezpeleta's actions, saying he talked to Yamaha's Maseo Furusawa and he does the pushing with Bridgestone. Jerry Burgess has always maintained he doesn't want to change tyres, his view is that you work with your technical partners to solve your problems and by doing so get stronger as a team.

However, he is only too aware that the decision will be taken at a much higher level than race team staff.

Valentino brushed aside the idea that Burgess was against changing tyre brand by suggesting that 'Jerry doesn't want to make hard decisions.' Personally I wouldn't want to say that to JB's face.

When a French journalist asked what Valentino would do if Bridgestone would not supply him, he replied 'I have to make a decision.' In other words, I might go away and play with a rally car for a year or so.

And yesterday we thought this might be a boring weekend...