• There have been a total of 226 Grand Prix races for solo motorcycles held at the Assen circuit.
• Honda have been the most successful manufacturer having scored a total of 53 GP victories in all of the different classes, followed by MV-Agusta with 36 and Yamaha with 30.
• Honda are also the most successful manufacturer in the premier-class at Assen with 16 victories, just one more than MV-Agusta.
• Italy is the most successful nation at the Assen circuit, having scored a total of 67 wins, followed by Great Britain with 43 victories.
• In the premier-class both Italy and Great Britain have had 16 victories at Assen.
• There have been 107 different Grand Prix winners at the Assen circuit.
• The rider with most GP victories at Assen is Angel Nieto with 15 wins in the 125cc and 50cc classes, followed by Giacomo Agostini who recorded 14 triumphs riding 500cc and 350cc machines. Giacomo Agostini is the most successful rider in the premier-class with six victories, followed by Mick Doohan with five. Both Agostini and Doohan won at Assen five years in succession.
• The longest Grand Prix ever held at Assen was the 500cc race in 1950 which was run over 18 laps. At that time the circuit was over 16.5 km long, giving a total race distance of  297 km. The race was won by Umberto Masetti riding a Gilera in a time of 2 hours and 43.2 seconds at an average speed of 148 km/h.
• The very first World Championship Grand Prix race held at Assen was the 350cc race in 1949 which was won by British rider Freddie Frith, who also owned all the four other GP races in the 350cc class in 1949 before retiring at the end of the year as World Champion.
• The youngest rider to win a GP at Assen is Marco Melandri who was still fifteen years old when he took his debut victory in the 1998 125cc race.
• The oldest rider ever to win a GP at Assen is Fergus Anderson who was 45 years old when he took the 350cc race in 1954.
• Four Dutch riders have won Grand Prix at their home circuit; Paul Lodewijkx the 50cc race in 1968, Wil Hartog the 500cc race in 1977, Jack Middelburg the 500cc race in 1980 and Hans Spaan the 125cc race in 1989.

MotoGP Facts & Figures prior to Assen

• Honda have taken MotoGP victory on eight occasions in the last ten years at the Dutch TT with the other two victories in this period going to Yamaha. The last Suzuki win at Assen was with Kevin Schwantz in 1993.
• Valentino Rossi’s pole last year was the first in the premier-class at Assen by a Yamaha rider since Christian Sarron back in 1988.
• Valentino Rossi has won at Assen in all three classes, the 125cc class in 1997 and 250cc in 1998 and the MotoGP in 2002 and 2004. A victory this year for Rossi would make him the first rider to have had two victories at Assen riding a Yamaha.
• In addition to his debut Grand Prix victory, Marco Melandri has also won on a 250cc machine at the Dutch TT, in 2002 on his way to winning the world title. Melandri scored one of his two MotoGP podium finishes of 2004 at the Assen circuit. Melandri has scored more points in the first six races of this year than he did throughout the ‘04 season.
• Max Biaggi, who celebrates his 34th birthday the day after the Dutch TT, has won three times at Assen; in the 250cc class in 1994 & 1995, and in the 500cc class in 2001, in a race cut short due to rain.
• Sete Gibernau has finished on the podium three times at the Assen circuit, including a victory in 2003.
• Alex Barros has had fifteen starts in the premier class at Assen and it is the circuit at which he has had most success. In addition to his win in 2000 he has had four podium finishes, on three different makes of machine; 1992 on a Cagiva, 1994 on a Suzuki, 1996 and 2002 on a Honda. His 3rd place at Assen in 1992 was his first ever podium finish when he was just 21 years old. His crash last year on lap eleven when fighting for the lead was the first time he had failed to score points at Assen since 1993 when he fell whilst leading the race on the penultimate lap.
• Colin Edwards was successful at Assen in the World Superbike Championship, scoring a total of three race wins, including a double victory in 2002.
• Nicky Hayden’s fifth place finish in Catalunya is his best result since he was fourth at the Malaysian GP last year.
• Loris Capirossi has started from pole at Assen three times in the last five years, including his first ever premier-class pole in 2000. In addition to
  his two podium finishes in the premier-class at Assen, Capirossi has twice won the 250cc race at the Dutch TT.
• Carlos Checa has twice finished on the podium at Assen; in 2002 riding the four-stroke Yamaha and in 1997 riding the two-stroke Honda.
• Troy Bayliss won both of the Superbike races at Assen in 2001 to clinch the World Superbike title.
• Kenny Roberts’s second place finish in 1999 was the last time that a Suzuki rider has finished on the podium at the Dutch TT.
• Valentino Rossi’s domination of the MotoGP class continued at the Catalan GP with another victory over his rival Sete Gibernau. Rossi’s achievements are such that he is setting new records and milestones with each Grand Prix victory:
  His score of 145 points from the first six races of 2005 equal his own record set in 2002 when riding a Honda.
  His current 58 point lead in the World Championship classification is the largest lead any rider has had after the first six races since the days of domination by Giacomo Agostini and the MVAgusta in the late 1960’s.
  Rossi is the first Yamaha rider ever to score five Grand Prix victories from the first six races of the year in the premier-class.
  For the second time since moving to Yamaha, Rossi has scored four successive victories which, equals the longest ever run of consecutive victories in the premier-class by a Yamaha rider, achieved by Eddie Lawson.
  He has finished on the podium at the last nine races, which is the longest run of podium finishes by a Yamaha rider in the premier-class since Wayne Rainey also notched nine consecutive top threes at the end of the 1992 and start of 1993 seasons.
  In the 22 races since he joined Yamaha Rossi has won 14 races (63.6%) and finished on the podium 17 times (77.3%).
• Following the recent success in the premier-class with Valentino Rossi scoring 14 victories since he joined Yamaha at the start of last year, the manufacturer are now closing in on the total number of premier-class victories scored by MV-Agusta in the years from 1952 to 1976. The following list shows the number of victories in the premier-class by each manufacturer:
  1. Honda 193
  2. MV-Agusta 139
  3. Yamaha 136
  4. Suzuki 89
  5. Gilera 35
  6. Norton 21
  7. AJS 5
  8. Cagiva 3
  Matchless 3
  Moto Guzzi 3
  11. Kawasaki 2
  12. Ducati 1, Jawa 1, Konig 1, Linto 1, Sanvenero 1
• The rivalry between Valentino Rossi and first Max Biaggi and more recently Sete Gibernau, has been among the fiercest rivalries of all time in the premier-class of Grand Prix racing. The domination of these three riders in recent years has meant that at least one of them has finished on the podium in the last 78 races. The last race at which none of these three riders appeared on the podium was five years ago at the Dutch TT in 2000. In the 38 races since the start of 2003 on 31 occasions at least two of these riders appeared on the podium together. Since Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi finished one-two for the first time at the Czech GP in 2000, they have filled the top two places on the podium together on a further seventeen occasions. Only one other rider combination has filled the top two places in the premier-class on more occasions and that was Eddie Lawson and Wayne Gardner. Rossi’s recent rivalry with Gibernau means they have also now finished one-two together on 15 occasions. The following list which shows the riders which have finished together on most occasions (the figure in brackets showing how many times each rider has finished first in these encounters).
  20 Eddie Lawson (11) /Wayne Gardner (9)
  18 Valentino Rossi (14) /Max Biaggi (4)
  17 Kevin Schwantz (12) /Wayne Rainey (5)
  15 Mike Hailwood (12) /Giacomo Agostini (3)
  Mick Doohan (10) /Alex Criville (5)
  Valentino Rossi (11)/Sete Gibernau (4)
  12 Freddie Spencer (9) /Eddie Lawson (3)
  Kevin Schwantz (7) /Mick Doohan (5)
  Wayne Rainey (8) /Mick Doohan (4)
• Carlos Checa’s eleventh place finish at the Catalan GP was the 113th time he has finished in a point scoring position in the premier-class of Grand Prix racing. Only three riders have finished in a point scoring position more times than Checa as shown in the following table:
  1. Alex Barros 173
  2. Mick Doohan 120
  3. Norick Abe 114
  4. Carlos Checa 113
  5. Alex Criville 111
  6. Eddie Lawson 110
  7. Randy Mamola 109
  8. Max Biaggi 98
  9. Sete Gibernau 97
  10. Giacomo Agostini 95, Kenny Roberts Jnr 95