Ben Spies the 2009 World Superbike Champion (riding a Yamaha) and rookie of the year last year in MotoGP (riding the Monster Yamaha of the Tech3 team) took his first ever MotoGP victory aboard the number 11 works Yamaha sporting the original red and white colours of the marque. At slippery Assen the World’s oldest surviving GP race Spies out gunned Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner who finished the race in second place. ( Stoner’s not winning brought tremendous cheer to fans of MotoGP who love to see him lose. His unpopularity is now soaring with the normally polite and correct Nicky Hayden saying that “he fuels off controversy and accusing others” when Stoner alleged that he was deliberately baulked by Hayden in practice. Hayden refused to apologize to Stoner saying that he did nothing wrong). Behind Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso finished in third place while Valentino Rossi finished in fourth place ahead of his factory Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden who finished fifth. Cal Crutchlow was running a wonderful fifth when his race was cut short by a badly worn out front tyre. Marco Simoncelli took out his staunch critic and defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo at the third corner of the first lap while trying to overtake him. Lorenzo remounted to finish an impressive sixth while Simoncelli who also remounted took ninth place.