For the 2007 MotoGP season their was 117 crashes, 36 occurred during a race, the rest during practice and qualifying times. Randy de Puniet was the rider with the most crashes this year, having hit the track 12 times. He had the most in 2006 as well with a total of 14, showing a slight increase for the Frenchman. Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner both posted 6 crashes each, a big improvement for the Ausie rider Casey Stoner who had 14 crashes in 2006. Rossi however increased from his 4 crashes in 2006.

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During his month off of testing in December, Hopkins returned to America, more specifically Las Vegas and the Hard Rock Hotel, and tied the knot with his fiancee Ashleigh. Colin Edwards attended along with a few other MotoGP riders. The happy newly married couple will spend their honeymoon in French Polynesia so Hopkins will be ready for testing to resume for 2008 in Sepang.

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The “Kentucky Kid” - Nicky Hayden used the off season time to have surgey on his shoulder. The 2006 World Champion went under the knife in Northern California under the care of motorcycle injury specialist Dr. Ting. Hayden is unable to type his own messages but with some help he checked in with fans on his website to inform them of his current condition.

“All went good and Dr. Ting is happy with how it went,” Hayden told fans, “after a week or ten days I’ll be able to take the sling off and should have no problems being 100% for the next test.”

Hayden wasn’t the only rider at Dr. Tings clinic, AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies and Hayden’s own former teammate Jason Pridmore were also on site getting treatments.

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Bayliss rides to the top of the timesheet. For two and a half days Troy Corser rider with Yamaha Motor Italia looked like he would be the only man to leave Losail with a time under the 1’58 barrier, but after suffering his second crash he had to sit out the final part, and watch his great rival Troy Bayliss riding with Ducati Xerox secure the best lap time of 1’58.1.

Bayliss, riding the all-new 1098 F08 machine, put in a quick last lap after a busy test for both rider and team, overcoming some set-up issues on day one to finish strongly. Second quickest rider was Corser’s team-mate and 2007 vice-champion, Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) who used a new swingarm design to secure a time of 1’58.4, only two tenths better than Corser’s pre-crash best.

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