Vermeulen has used number 71 on his race machines in his first two seasons of MotoGP racing with Suzuki but following Carlos Checa's departure form MotoGP, the Aussie jumped the opportunity to run with Barry Sheene's number "7".

© FIM. Suzuki Yoshimura with Jomo 34 put an end to a series of ten victories by Honda at Suzuka today.

© Honda Pro Images. The Honda HRC 11 of Ryuichi Kiyonari and James Toseland took the plaudits in Friday's qualifying sessions for the ‘Coca Cola Zero' Suzuka 8 Hours.

© Fiat Yamaha Team. Valentino Rossi rounded off the first day of the Grand Prix of Catalunya in positive fashion today, setting the second fastest time of the day on his penultimate lap as temperatures climbed into the thirties at Montmelo.

© Repsol Media Service. The opening 800cc practice sessions for the Alice Grand Prix of Italy got underway in a day of two halves in Mugello.

© Team LCR. Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa was in top form at Le Mans today, qualifying in third position on the front row of the grid for the French Grand Prix.

© Repsol Media Service. Dani Pedrosa took his RC212V to fourth place in Sunday's Grand Prix of China, a result which maintains his third position in the World Championship.

© Ducati Corse. Series leader Casey Stoner won his third Grand Prix victory of the year at Shanghai today, extending his World Championship lead to 15 points after four of 18 races.

© Fiat Yamaha Team. A weekend of close racing beckons at the Grand Prix of China as the first day of practice finished with the top fourteen MotoGP riders separated by less than a second in Shanghai today.

© Fiat Yamaha Team. Valentino Rossi returned to the top step of the podium after leading for all 27-laps of the Grand Prix of Spain, taking his first victory since Sepang last year and his 46th win of the four-stroke MotoGP era.

© Fiat Yamaha Team. Valentino Rossi will start from second position for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Spain in Jerez after an exciting and extremely close qualifying battle today, while his team-mate Colin Edwards will be just behind him in fourth having lost out on third position in the dying moments of the session.

© Repsol Media Service. Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa came within 0.

© Honda LCR. Spaniard Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa blitzed the field with the fastest time in the opening day of free practice for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

© Ducati Corse. MotoGP World Championship leader Casey Stoner was just three tenths down on Carlos Checa's time, the fastest man of the day, proving that his Qatar-winning Desmosedici GP7 adapts well from circuit to circuit.

© Honda Pro Images. As round two of what is shaping up to be a red-hot MotoGP World Championship hits Jerez in southern Spain this weekend, a 250,000 crowd is expected.

© Repsol Media Service. Huge crowds are expected at the Spanish circuit for the first European race of the season and the factory Honda riders will arrive with confidence following last month's successful test at the Andalusian track.

© Team LCR. Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa will start from twelfth position on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow's Qatar Grand Prix, the opening race of the 2007 MotoGP season.