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On the eve of the British round of World Superbikes at Silverstone, and the first time the World Superbike paddock has reconvened after Valentino Rossi's tests on the WSBK bike at Misano and Brno, it was inevitable that the subject of Rossi on the R1 would be brought up. At the pre-race paddock show, James Toseland addressed the matter head on, in response to questions from GPOne.com's representative, Claudio Porrozzi.

Toseland had been upset by stories that had appeared in the media after the Misano test, stating that he had demanded that Rossi not be allowed to test his bike. "I was surprised by what I read," Toseland said, and went on to deny categorically that he had vetoed Rossi using his Sterilgarda Yamaha R1 to test. He was a Yamaha rider, Toseland affirmed, and so had no say in the matter as to who got to test his bike.

Despite the two-week layoff after Laguna Seca, MotoGP's summer break sees Silly Season in overdrive. As the paddock awaits the final announcement of Valentino Rossi's move to Ducati, expected at Brno, the reshuffling which must necessarily take place to fill the seat left by the Italian is going on behind the scenes.

The rider expected to fill Rossi's seat is of course Ben Spies, as his current boss, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Herve Poncharal hinted in an interview at Laguna Seca.But until Rossi officially announces his switch to Ducati, and therefore rejects Yamaha's bid to keep his services, nothing can be finalized. That is set to change at Brno, however. According to Yamaha Racing's managing director Lin Jarvis, speaking to the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, Yamaha wants to have their 2011 line-up sorted out by Brno. Yamaha is closing in on a deal with the man currently leading the MotoGP championship Jorge Lorenzo, and should be able to settle the final details within the next two weeks. "We'd like to have everything in place by Brno, in order to announce the 2011 team," Jarvis told the Gazzetta.

MotoGP's silly season is in full swing, and it has been Ducati who have been dominating the media over the past couple of months. First, by seeing the man who won their only championship, Casey Stoner, head off to Honda to join his former mentor Livio Suppo. And more recently, by the will-he-won't-he saga of Valentino Rossi's imminent arrival to take Stoner's place at the Bologna factory.

But out of the spotlight, the factory has being expanding its involvement even further. Yesterday, Karel Abraham announced on his website that he will be riding a Desmosedici GP11 in MotoGP next season. The 20 year-old Czech is currently riding for the Cardion AB Moto2 team, and has seen a marked improvement in his fortunes since the team switched from the RSV chassis to the FTR.

Q: How difficult was that?

Valentino Rossi: Very much, yeah. Especially the beginning, I have to stay out of the battle, because in front they were making a strong battle. So I don't feel enough confidence to go into the battle. I have to wait. And I need a bit too much lap to take good rhythm and to ride in a good way. I have to say that when I see Dani in the gravel, is extra motivation, you know, because fourth or fifth, more or less is same, but fourth or third change a lot. And from that moment I try to make my best, and I put some good laps together, and I arrived with Dovi, and this time I win the battle, not like in Sachsenring.

Q: At one stage you were over two and a half seconds behind Dovizioso, and as we've seen in the past, it is difficult to close down the gap. There was a lot of laps left, but were you always confident that it would be quite easy to catch up with him?

A spectacular setting for a race, aided in no small part by money from Mazda

This Ducati will be wearing the same number in 2011

And this rider will have an old teammate next door to him again

Q: Was the front end problem similar to the problem you've had previously or just an incident in this race?

Casey Stoner: For me it's a problem, that I suppose if people have the wrong weight in their bike, it was a problem not only for me but for a lot of other riders. A fair few of them crashed, but I think even more had similar problems to me. Obviously, Dani did as well. Like I said, you know, every time I tried to push just a little bit harder, like I had been doing all weekend, it just wanted to fold. Even in the slow corners where I haven't got a lot of weight on it, middle of the turn it would just start folding on me. We have no idea what the reason is, it's not anything like in the past. If I had the forks from the past I would have been down the first time I lost it. But no, with these forks, I get a lot more feedback, so when it does go, I can pick it back up as quick as I can and continue. I feel a lot safer with what I'm running at the moment.

Q: What happened?

Dani Pedrosa: I hit a bump. I was entering with the brake and I hit a bump with the front wheel, and I just lost the front.

Q: What does this mean for the championship? Can you still catch Jorge?

Broken leg and duff shoulder or not, Rossi was on it in the US

Andrea Dovizioso could not translate his front-row start into a top-three finish

Dreaming of a three-peat one day