Toni Elias

With the highest-profile moves all officially confirmed, MotoGP's Silly Season is starting to run out of steam. The big surprises are out of the way, and we are left with just over half the seats still unfilled. But even for the unsigned rides, names have already been penciled in, some rather more firmly than others. 

The two big names still waiting to put their signatures under contracts are surely Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa. Lorenzo's Brazilian manager is said to be playing hardball with Yamaha, trying to extract the best possible conditions out of the Japanese factory now that the sales powerhouse Valentino Rossi has left Yamaha to go to Ducati. Rumors of a 14 million euro salary demand are unconfirmed, but with Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica likely to take on sponsorship of the Yamaha squad, Lorenzo might be expected to earn that in sponsorship by allying his selling power to the Telefonica brand.

While Scott Jones, MotoMatters.com's own photographer is back home in California, our friend Jules Cisek is here at Brno instead. And fortunately for us, Jules is a dab hand with the camera as well. Here's his photos from Saturday.

It's decision day for Rossi on Sunday at Brno

A ride through the forest: Brno provides a beautiful setting for motorcycle racing

Alvaro Bautista is getting pretty beat up this year. His big crash on Saturday morning left him thankfully just bruised

The paddock's response to the leniency of the punishment for Toni Elias and the Gresini Moto2 team has been one of puzzlement. After all, for testing during the summer break, a period during which all testing is prohibited, Elias was only punished by being excluded from a single session, and the team handed a 3000 euro fine. That, some said, was a pretty good price to pay: an affordable fine and the loss of 20 laps on a crowded track against some 90 uninterrupted laps on an empty circuit. Such a light penalty might set a precedent, and speculation has been rife that others could follow in Gresini's footsteps.

One of the first names to be suggested as likely to benefit from extra testing was the Rizla Suzuki squad of Loris Capirossi and Alvaro Bautista. The Suzuki GSV-R is suffering from a serious lack of development this year, and could really benefit from extra testing time. Suzuki team boss Paul Denning has previously been rumored to be considering extra testing, and so MotoMatters.com caught up with the Suzuki boss to get his opinion of the punishment for Elias.

Moto2 championship leader Toni Elias' weekend at Brno has gotten off to a rather poor start. The Gresini Moto2 rider has been punished for testing the Moriwaki Moto2 bike at Misano last weekend. Race Direction has ruled that the test was against the rules - as it was a private test at a circuit on the calendar during the official summer break - and has handed the team a 3000 euro fine, and banned the Spaniard from taking part in Friday's first session of free practice at Brno.

The Gresini team did not lodge an appeal, accepting full responsibility for a clear error of judgement. The team had not read the rules carefully enough, and had not thought about the possible ramifications of the test. With Elias sitting on a comfortable 42-point lead over 2nd place man Thomas Luthi, Elias will be happy to accept just a fine and being forced to miss a single session of practice.

With the MotoGP season at its halfway point, and the silly season starting to shake itself out, it's time to take a look at the state of the market for 2011. With contracts either signed or on the verge of being signed, the picture of who will be riding where is becoming clear. For the most part, names have been at least pencilled in, those pencil strokes to be replaced by contractually obliging ink after Brno and Indianapolis, but there are still one or two question marks that remain open.

In the first part of this silly season summary, we will address who goes where in the factory teams. The rider picture is just about settled, with the only real question mark what happens at Suzuki. But riders aren't the only factor here, as somebody has to pay the bills. So alongside the rider lineup for each team, we've addressed the issue of sponsorship, and who is likely to be footing the bill next year. Riders and sponsors in bold are confirmed (or as good as confirmed), while names in italics are either best guesses or based on firm rumors. Tomorrow, we will look at the state of the satellite teams.

Yet more stunning images from the camera of Michel Hulshof, shooting his home Grand Prix at Assen. You can see more at http://www.sports-photography.org/ 

Compare and contrast: Dani "Mr Smooth" Pedrosa

... Toni "Wild Man" Elias

I can save this, I can save this, I can save this ...

Jorge Lorenzo learned his way around Silverstone surprisingly quickly

Birthday Boy: Kenny Noyes celebrated his 31st birthday with a fogged up visor

For the first time in a while, Ben Spies turned up at a track with the same level of knowledge as his rivals. He ended day 1 in 5th

Yuki Takahashi, and the Mistral 610

With 41 Moto2 bikes, the track was packed

The FIM today released the provisional entry lists for the MotoGP class, and the list has no surprises in it. The list contains official confirmation of the numbers the MotoGP rookies will be using, most of which are the numbers they used previously. Hiroshi Aoyama is the only exception, taking number 7 as the number 4 which he used in the 250 class has already been claimed by Andrea Dovizioso - who in turn had been forced to take 4 because his preferred number 34 has been retired in honor of Kevin Schwantz.

Rather surprising is Marco Melandri's entry. He was listed under the number 24, and not the number 33 which he has used since entering MotoGP. This turned out to be a mistake, as pointed out to us by the San Carlo Honda Gresini press office. Melandri will be running number 33 in 2010 after all.

2010 MotoGP Rider Lineup