- Assen is the only venue at which a
Grand Prix event has been held in each of the 53 years of World
Championship motorcycle racing.
- Up until Max Biaggi’s win riding a
Yamaha last year, Honda had won in the 500cc class for the previous 7
years, five years with Mick Doohan, then 1999 with Tady Okada and 2000
with Alex Barros.
- The last Suzuki win in the premier
class at Assen was by Kevin Schwantz back in 1993.
- Honda riders have started from pole
for the last nine years at the Dutch TT. The last time a non-Honda was
on pole was Eddie Lawson on a Cagiva in 1992. Schwantz was on pole for
Suzuki in 1991. The last pole for Yamaha at Assen was Christian Sarron
in 1988.
- In addition to Biaggi’s win last year
only two Yamaha riders have finished on the podium at Assen in the last
10 years; Simon Crafar finished third in 1998 and John Kocinski finished
second to Alex Criville in 1992.
- Valentino Rossi has won at Assen in
the 125cc class in 1997 and 250cc in 1998. Assen together with
Sachsenring and Valencia are the only current circuits at which Rossi
has not won in the top-class of racing.
- Max Biaggi,
who has his 31st birthday today, has won three times at Assen; in the
250cc class in 1994 & 1995, and in the 500cc class last year. At
Catalunya Biaggi scored his first pole
position in the new MotoGP class and the first one for Yamaha.
- Valentino Rossi has already equaled
Wayne Gardner's 18 wins in the top class of GP, one more and he will
overhaul Barry Sheene's number of wins.
- John Hopkins finished in the top ten
for the first time in his Grand Prix career at Catalunya after
qualifying in a best ever 6th place on the grid and the
top Yamaha two-stroke rider. Hopkins is the youngest ever rider
from the USA to score a top ten finish in the premier class of Grand
Prix racing.
- With Casey Stoner putting in another
impressive performance in Catalunya it is perhaps just a matter of time
before he is threatening for a podium finish. If he was to finish in the
top three before the end of the season he will become the youngest ever
podium finisher in the 250cc class. The youngest five 250 GP podium
finishers, from youngest to oldest are; Marco Melandri, Mike Hailwood,
Alan Carter, Johnny Cecotto, Valentino Rossi.
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