If he could've, he would've. These are humbling days for everyone who predicted Pedro Acosta would crack the whip in MotoGP from the moment he arrived. It's too late for him to be the teenage phenom rewriting the record book. Any run at the all-time MotoGP win list will have to wait until next year. But as the old Japanese proverb goes: Speak of next year, and the devil laughs.

Alex Marquez has the hardest job in MotoGP. Somewhere in history there must have been a brother of David, the giant slayer. Nobody remembers his name.

The Dutch crowd at Assen topped 100,000 on Sunday. About 90,000 of them spent the day drinking beer that long ago surrendered any claim to being cold, eating greasy fries with mayonnaise and roasting their remarkably pale flesh under the European sun. Today, Holland belongs to aspirin.

A lone Turkish flag flies. It's been a bad season to be a Toprak Razgatlıoğlu supporter. His Turkish fans have been very very quiet.

Engines going boom. Rider psyches going boom. Rider bodies going boom. It's almost as if karma has finally caught up with KTM.

If (33) Brad Binder's MotoGP career is coming to an end, it would be a shame. He could always head to America and race MotoRainey with his brother. The fun would be first-rate. The paycheck, ... not so much.

Assen marked the first MotoGP race without front ride-height devices at the start. Don't fret, the rider still has more than enough dumb settings to manage just with his left hand (Clutch, display mode, acceleration map, deceleration map, traction control map, front brake lever adjustment wheel, rear height device adjustment and save as PDF). Okay, no PDF but still way too many buttons.

This has basically been Alex Márquez’s entire life. When the home phone rings, he knows it’s not for him.

Being Valentino's half-brother has probably provided Luca Marini with top MotoGP rides. The unfortunate reality is that opportunity only matters if it turns into results. Opportunity alone isn't legacy. Will Sofia make Vale "make a job for your brother, call somebody" again in 2027? Probably. Will VR46 do so? Probably. What are you gonna do--you can't pick your relatives.