The Alstare Suzuki team had high hopes for the Dutch round at Assen and yet again it was their German rider Neukirchner who was their best points scorer and podium hope.
After the pre-race press briefing when Checa and Max shook hands it was remarkable that Neukirchner really did not bear the Spaniard any ill feeling. It was simply a racing incident and they chose to forget it all and get on with the weekend.
The German is quickly managing to stir many German fans to come and watch WSBK racing with his recent success, and there were hundreds of them in the stands at Assen making the trip across to Holland.
He rode superbly in the first race to be the main challenger to
Troy Bayliss until, yes you guessed it, Checa caught him up in the latter stages.
The Spaniard made a clean move to pass though and Max hung on to finish third, his first podium since his Klaffi Hodna days in 2005 when he first sprang to prominence.
"Race 1 was a fantastic result for me," said Neukirchner. "I was in contention to the end but was a little slow through a couple of turns which held me back. I think maybe I was using the rear brake too much which pushed the front tyre a bit hard.
"Second race was harder, I was braking too hard and over-worked the front tyre. This meant I was slow in teh faster corners so I settled for a finish.
Yukio Kagayama looked as spectacular as ever on his PepePhone GSXR. The reigning Suzuka 8 Hour champion was quick in practice and was right up there in race one, leading until a small mistake in the last corner pushed him back.
"First race was very good," admitted 'Yuki'. "I was leading until I made a small mistake, going through the gravel and I lost places. I recovered but it was too hard to get back into contention.
"I used the same bike for the second race but the rear tyre felt bad. There was a lot of chattering. If I pushed harder this got worse so I rode for points."
