No top class world championship yet for the little man from IT.

It's Valencia, the top dozen are therefore covered by a second, Stoner is fastest, Rossi says he hasn't got any grip; situation normal. We'll know more tomorrow.

Off track, a new world-championship trophy was unveiled, and it's a major improvement on the old one. Past Champs Kevin Schwantz and Alex Criville were on hand to unveil it. The trophy consists of a tower of silver tiles, one for each year since 1949 each bearing the name of the champion and the make of his bike.

Schwantz was quite emotional about it, enthusing about the names that have come after him and almost in awe of names like Agostini who'd gone before. Typically, he thought of the 'great riders' who never got their names on a world championship trophy—he mentioned Loris Capirossi.

On track there was significant moment on track when Gilera rider Marco Simoncelli crashed and activated an airbag in his Dainese suit. The D-Air system uses three accelerometers, three gyros and a GPS system to decide when to use the little gas cylinder carried in the hump of the leathers to pump 37 litres of gas into the airbags that protect neck and shoulders in less than 40 milliseconds.

Dainese say it's primarily a collarbone saver.

On track there was significant moment on track when Gilera rider Marco Simoncelli crashed and activated an airbag in his Dainese suit.

All the European manufacturers of automotive airbags said it couldn't be done, Dainese took three years to develop the electronics and are now confident enough to deploy it on track. I watched a technical demonstration with Loris Reggiani who said he would have liked to have had the use of one when he was in 250s. Loris never had a gentle crash...

He was also of the opinion that the D-Air system will be of greatest use to road riders. Dainese say we'll have to wait three years.