Assen is one of those tracks. Right up at the Northern end of Holland, it holds a unique place in both history and sentiment. It's one of the oldest circuits still in use anywhere, despite being changed massively from its original layout. And it's a circuit which consistently offers excitement and surprises. Despite the changes, which to be fair were mainly for safety reasons, the essential character of the place has remained unchanged. It's still pretty flat (well, this is Holland after all) and still open and flowing. And it's still incredibly fast. The new, tighter section polarises opinion with riders either loving or loathing it, but overall Assen is a deservedly popular round. It's also blessed with atmosphere rarely found outside Italian races as bizarrely it's relatively easy to get to from the rest of Europe. And the fact that the Dutch all seem to speak immaculate English and are as friendly as you could possibly ask means that Assen gets treated as an honourary British rounds by the thousands who make their bi-annual pilgrimage (MotoGP here is even more enthusiastically attended).

Being a European round, the teams have had relatively little problem getting here despite the recent disruptions with air travel. Though presumably the cancellation of the Japanese MotoGp, TV coverage here will be improved and everyone will be out to maximise their sponsor coverage. Which might, perhaps, explain the large number of gravel excursions enjoyed by Cal Crutchlow in the first qualifying session. The session itself was interrupted when Johnny Rea's Honda exploded halfway through, dumping oil all over the track. But that didn't stop it from being a British benefit, with the top spot being held by Leon Haslam, Cal Crutchlow and Johnny Rea right up until a few moments from the end, when consistently fast qualifier Jakub Smrz sneaked in to take the honours.

Qualifying session two was a different story, though, running without interruption. Another strong showing from the British contingent, with James Toseland making his first foray toward the front of the leaderboard, setting the fastest lap very early in the session, deposed immediately by Johnny Rea, the Ulsterman having a brief but victorious tussle with Cal Crutchlow before reasserting himself at the top of the table. Carlos Checa also made a brief appearance at the top, beating himself on the next lap out before again yielding to the flying Rea on the Ten Kate team's home track. And then with just a few minutes to go, Troy Corser pulled an astonishing lap out of the bag to go a full half second faster than Rea. Jakub Smrz, too, remained fast and consistent to take second place in the last moments, a third of a second behind the Australian.

So going into Superpole we had the top twenty, separated by two and a half seconds. Indeed, such is the pace of the front runners that only the top five were within a second of the lead. That's Corser in front from Smrz, Rea,, Checa and Leon Camier on the Aprilia. But at the risk of repeating myself, qualifying is important but grid position is decided by Superpole. So actually, qualifying is just the appetiser. In fact, if the race is the main course, qualifying is just the aperitif - nice to have but not really that much of a big deal.

Superpole itself was blessedly uneventful. With consistently warm, dry conditions there was little for the teams to worry about other than just getting their riders out there on a reliable machine and hoping for the best. Chris Vermeulen, making a welcome return to the paddock after his Phillip Island injury, dropped out in the first fourteen minute session, ahead of Broc Parkes but behind Lorenzo Lanzi and Luca Scassa. Nearly one and three quarter seconds separated this group. The twelve minute second session saw the Yamaha pair of Crutchlow and Toseland as the fastest to drop out, running just three hundredths of a second apart despite Toseland's running off the track on what could have been a seriously quick lap. Max Biaggi and Ruben Xaus also failed to get through, the Spaniard crashing out uninjured, the pair of them coming in just ahead of Suzuki mounted Sylvain Guintoli, Kawasaki's Tom Sykes and an off form Nori Haga. Max Neukirchner brought up the rear of the group, just half a second off the Crutchlow's time. The final ten minute session went down to the line, with Leon Haslam establishing an early and apparently insurmountable lead until being pipped by Johnny Rea, going half a second quicker. And then the floodgates opened, as storming laps from Smrz and Corser split the British pair. So the end result was Rea on pole, with Smrz a brilliant tenth of a second behind, Corser a further quarter of a second back and then Haslam rounding out the front row, two hundredths of a second slower than the BMW rider. Row two is headed by Leon Camier whose performance continues to demonstrate the talent that made him such an emphatic BSB champion. Next to him is Ducati mounted Carlos Checa, ahead of his team-mate Shane Byrne and factory Ducati rider Michel Fabrizio. This row is split by just over three quarters of a second.

So the stage was set for an interesting race. On past performance, Corser is blisteringly fast to start, but the BMW then loses grip and he drops back, while Camier too is quick but occasionally crashes. Haga, Biaggi, Toseland and Crutchlow are all potential race leaders, but they've given themselves a mountain to climb by starting so far down the grid. And the result of all this? We were expecting a race with lots of passes and some serious commitment from riders with a lot to gain by a strong performance. And a lot to lose by a weak one.

Holland stayed kind, the sun stayed out and race day dawned sunny and warm. The crowd was considerably larger than on Saturday, the atmosphere was getting warmer and there was a distinct frisson of anticipation in the air. And warmup wasn't disappointing. Leon Haslam made another excursion into the gravel, rejoining quite happily and still managing to post the second fastest time. And Ruben Xaus decided to get his crashing out of the way early, hopefully clearing the way for staying on during the race. But it was Troy Corser who took the honours from Haslam, Rea and Sykes with Jakub Smrz the Czech meat in a Brit sandwich, being followed by Byrne and Crutchlow, honourary Brit Guintoli behind, followed by Camier and Xaus. But less than a second separated the top sixteen, promising a tight race...

Promises, it seems, mean something here. As the lights went out for Race One it was indeed Corser who made the most of his position, and the phenomenal off the line drive of the BMW, to take the lead from Leon Camier and Johnny Rea, with Smrz a close fourth ahead of Leon Haslam. The championship leader had big problems from the off, dropping back to finish the first lap in seventh, behind a charging Toseland and Biaggi. Post race discussions revealed that Haslam actually had a front tyre puncture, which makes his eventual eleventh place finish all the more remarkable. Someone else who was having a torrid time was Ruben Xaus. The Spaniard had clearly not exorcised his crashing demons earlier in the day, departing from his bike twice in a couple of minutes, remounting both times and retiring shortly afterward. Max Neukirchner also had an off, remounting and joining at the back of the pack. The Honda was clearly slightly the worse for wear, as despite the enormous encouragement from the crowd here in Ten Kate's back garden and indeed despite his prodigious ability the likeable German was unable to close on the back of the pack, and finished a distant last.

Back up at the front, six laps in and Corser's lead was a walloping half second over Johnny Rea, the Ulsterman having finally beaten off the attentions of Smrz and managed to get past Camier. Of course, it didn't last, with the top five riders all inside a second by a few laps later. James Toseland was having an extremely impressive race, having fought his way up to fifth from his lowly starting place and seeming to have really gelled with the Yamaha. But if we're talking about impressive rides, it has to be a straight tussle between Leon Camier and Troy Corser. Corser was finally passed by Rea on lap eleven, the Honda sneaking through at the chicane in a very neat move that seems to be one of Rea's signature pieces, but despite that the Australian was really riding the way we remember from his championship winning season - aggressive as anything but still super smooth as well. And Leon Camier had clearly also bonded with the Aprilia, and the trust he was missing had clearly come back, because his riding was super confident and as smooth as anything.

Now if you just look at the lap charts you might be forgiven for thinking that the last ten laps or so were fairly quiet. Perhaps even static. You would be sorely mistaken. James Toseland's rise continued, taking second place from Corser on lap fifteen after a long and rather robust battle with Camier that saw both of them leaning heavily on each other on occasions, though without any malice. And behind, Carlos Checa was on the move, passing both Biaggi and Smrz to hook on to the back of the leading group. And when Toseland made a fantastic passing move to take the lead on lap nineteen we knew it was going to be an exciting finish. As it happened, Rea kept his head and slipped back in front on the first corner. If Toseland had pulled that move on the last lap, though, he would have won buy three hundredths of a second. But Johnny Rea was a little perturbed by Toseland's attack, and put the hammer down for the last few haps, eventually extending a lead of over a second for a comfortable but well earned win. Just a second and a quarter divided the next four, with places swapping during each lap but no-one seeming to be able to make a pass stick. Toseland crossed the line just a tenth of a second clear of Camier, with Checa a third of a second further back. Corser, whose tyres had gone off severely toward the end of the race, battled off Biaggi to take fifth a tenth of a second ahead of the Roman. Smrz eventually finished a further four seconds back, while Crutchlow prevailed over race long rival Shane Byrne by a tenth of a second and tenth placed Haga by over seven seconds.

That gave us our first all Brit podium, we think, since Shakey Byrne, Neil Hodgson and Chris Walker at Brands Hatch in 2003. And on St George's weekend, too.

Race two looked as though it could be interesting from the off. Track temperature had gone up considerably which meant that tyre wear was going to be an issue, potentially. This time there was no mistake from Rea, the Ulsterman firing the Honda straight into the lead from Corser and Haslam, going rather better with air in the tyre. Leon Camier made another great start to slot into fourth with Smrz and Xaus behind. Before the second corner, Haga got pushed wide onto the astroturf track edge, keeping the Ducati upright and moving but losing position and rejoining seventeenth. And two corners later someone clipped the back of Lorenzo Lanzi's Ducati, sending the helpless Italian ploughing into Tom Sykes' Kawasaki and sending both of them down the track. Happily neither of them appeared injured, and the unidentified rider who was original cause of the incident was able to ride away unaffected.

This time Toseland's start wasn't quite as good, the Englishman finishing the first lap in eighth. And while he proceeded to carve his way through the rest of the pack, up at the front Rea was completely failing to break Corser. Far from it, in fact, as the double World Champion reeled the Ulsterman in and passed him on lap eight to take the lead. Behind, Leon Haslam rode steadily, neither making great inroads into the lead nor dropping back. In a repeat of the last race, by lap ten the top five riders were still separated by under a second, though they themselves were a full second clear of Biaggi in sixth. Lap eleven saw Haslam in second place from Camier, both of them having passed Rea, while lap twelve saw Haslam take the lead with Camier back to fifth behind Toseland.

And so it continued. Rea got the lead back on lap fifteen, crossing the line four thousandths of a second clear of Haslam with Toseland now half a second off in third. More mid lap shenanigans, especially between Toseland and Camier, were ended when the Aprilia rider ran a little on the exit to a corner and touched the grass. The likeable and very tall Man of Kent was launched from the bike and slid ever such as long way across the grass before getting up after what seemed an age. His bike was utterly destroyed. And that rather decided the race. Though Corser's tyres lasted better than in race one, he was unable to hold the original pace all the way through and finally finished fifth, just under a tenth of a second behind Max Biaggi who had passed him with three laps to run. As it became obvious that nobody was going to catch Rea, people became far more sensible and relaxed, the gap from leader to third widening almost visibly. And it was Toseland who finished third, behind Haslam and Rea but just a tenth ahead of Biaggi and Corser.

So again we had a British 1-2-3, again with Johnny Rea at the top. The Ten Kate team were obviously delighted to have done the double at their home round, Rea was smiling so much I thought his face might split, Leon Haslam was happy to have extended his championship lead and James Toseland has clearly got his mojo back. The racing was hard, close and frankly bloody exciting, even for a cynical old hack like me. Monza in two weeks time, where hopefully we'll see more of the same. Assuming the Carabinieri allow us to get to the track, of course.

Race One

1 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
2 James Toseland (Yamaha)
3 Leon Camier (Aprilia)
4 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
5 Troy Corser (BMW)
6 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
7 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
8 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
9 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
10 Nori Haga (Ducati)

Race Two

1 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
2 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
3 James Toseland (Yamaha)
4 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
5 Troy Corser (BMW)
6 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
7 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
8 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
9 Max Neukirchner (Honda)
10 Ruben Xaus (BMW)

Championship Standing after four rounds:

1 Leon Haslam 148
2 Max Biaggi 128
3 Jonathan Rea 110
4 Carlos Checa 103
5 James Toseland 86
6 Nori Haga 85
7 Troy Corser 68
8 Sylvain Guintoli 55
9 Michel Fabrizio 53
10 Cal Crutchlow 49

SB