Saturday pm - Stoner Puts the Big Calm on MotoGP

Casey Stoner unintentionally summed up this weirdly calm season of MotoGP racing when he said, after wrapping up his third consecutive pole position here at Brno: "Even when things are not working perfectly, we still end up with a good result."

And it is calm here - totally becalmed. The buzz that normally hangs over this paddock isn't there. Nicky Hayden has just scored his first front-row start on the Repsol Honda, but he's way past being a championship threat. His team-mate Dani Pedrosa got his seventh pole of the year, but he's now so far behind that in the points that he also can't seriously run for the title in these final seven races of the season.

Everyone's assuming that Stoner and Ducati will now just roll onto the first world championship for both the factory and the rider. It's odd now to think that only a couple of seasons Ducati were thought of as those wonderfully mad Italians who could put together two or three wins in a season, but nothing more serious than that.

Everyone at Ducati is denying that there's any tension in the team and that they don't yet talk about winning the championship. "We all know it's possible," Stoner said. "But we don't say, 'We'll keep this setting because it's good for the championship'.

"I want to still win races before the end of the season. But when I'm not able to win I'll try and get as many points as possible."


Saturday pm - 2008 Starts Now

In effect, Honda and Yamaha have now got to write off 2007. So the post-race tests at Brno on Monday and Tuesday may turn into what is effectively the first evaluations of 2008 machines.

Yamaha are said to have a truckload of cases that look very much like engine crates. An M1 with pneumatic valves has been mentioned. There are other rumours swirling round this paddock so mad that I'm not going to print them even as rumours because people start wanting to believe them.

Speculation continues to rage about Tech III's choice of rubber for next year. All Yamahas on Michelin? It would seem to make sense.

Luis d'Antin is still mulling over who will ride in his Ducati satellite team. He's got a brace of virtual factory Desmosedicis there and he wants riders who can get more podiums than the solitary one scored this year (by Alex Barros at Mugello). Barros and partner Alex Hofmann are still on his short list, but d'Antin is also talking to 250cc runners Alex de Angelis, Andrea Dovizioso and Hiroshi Aoyama. de Angelis and Dovizioso also figure in Gresini Honda's plans, with Toni Elias now a possibility to remain now that talk of a third Suzuki has receded.

Tomorrow? A storm could rip through here and change most of this. It won't stay calm for long.


Saturday am - Stoner Could Join Elite Gang of Five