In the press conference room at the Assen media centre in The Netherlands it was full with viewers on Wednesday afternoon as MotoGP’s ‘big guns’ previewed the 61st annual World Championship event at the historic Dutch venue this weekend.

Fiat Yamaha’s Barcelona protagonists, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, the pair were also joined by Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner, also in attendance were Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi and Repsol Honda rider Italian Andrea Dovizioso.

Valentino Rossi will this weekend be aiming to create his own piece of history as he aims to win his 100th race, the charismatic Italian looked ahead to the next three days of action, adding, “It is a great track here, it is always difficult because some of the corners have high banks, whereas others are very flat so it is difficult understand the braking points. I made my only mistake in a race last season here (referring to an early collision with Randy de Puniet), so we have to make sure it is better this year.”

However just like in the Barcelona race in Spain, Jorge Lorenzo was right alongside his teammate to hype up this Saturday’s event, Lorenzo was also full of praise for the historic circuit.

“I always tell everyone that this is my favourite track. I liked it even more before it was modified but it continues to be great fun to ride and the atmosphere is wonderful,” he said. “Also, I am really pleased that the championship is so close this year and we hope to carry on providing a good show.”

Casey Stoner was non-committal on his chances of repeating his 2008 Assen victory.

“We had a fantastic race here last year, and our bike worked very well. We have a new bike this year and it is a different situation, so we have to wait and see what happens when we start on Thursday.”

We look forward to this weekends showdown.