There was no repeat of the Barcelona showdown, how could there be? Instead Valentino Rossi became only the second man in the history of Grand Prix motorcycle racing to rack-up 100 wins with an utterly dominant win at Assen.

Maybe he would rather have brought the ton up at Mugello, but instead he had to wait for the only track that has hosted a Grand Prix every year the championship has existed. Not a bad second choice.

The venue definitely added historical gravitas to the achievement. To underline the enormity of the number, Valentino's stopped on the slow-down lap to unroll a giant scroll of pictures of every one of his previous 99 victories. It was quite sobering to see number one--the 125 GP at Brno--happened nearly thirteen years ago.

It was another good weekend for the whole Fiat Yamaha team. As Rossi said after Barcelona, "... the two Yamakas were flying on this circuit." But at Assen they weren't flying in formation, Lorenzo had to throw in the towel well before the last round. Colin Edwards's fourth and a resurgent James Toseland's sixth place pointed out just how useable the M1 is.

The same could not be said of Honda. Both Repsol Hondas went down at turn one before half-distance, Dovi and Dani both lost the front of their new chassis. That left Elias in eighth as the best Honda--until Race Direction decided to penalize him for punting Capirossi off at the last corner. They'd warmed-up with the 125s, penalizing Nico Terol for a last-lap lunge that took both him and Julian Simon down the slip road. In this case, the decision demoted Terol from second to fourth. Given Race Direction warned and fined Marco Simoncelli at Mugello, MotoGP team managers have now got their lawyers on speed dial.