With the news that Marco Simoncelli has agreed to sign for HRC in MotoGP next season, it seems like the (small) bell could be tolling for one Dani Pedrosa who appears to be paying far too much attention to the law of gravity. Although the Italian will not be allowed to ride in the 'official' factory team due to Dorna's poking about and general meddling with parts of the rules that don't warrant it, he will be given the same stuff as Andrea Dovizioso, otherwise what's the point.

Dani Pedrosa's talent is a given but both he and his Italian team-mate have been openly critical of Honda's chassis in 2009 but some improvements on Monday saw Dovi top the post-race test timesheets and Pedrosa was licking his wounds from yet another crash in practice. I wonder if Alberto Puig has ever heard the term: "In it to win it..."?

Rumours circulating the watery world of marketing and PR say that Red Bull are wetting their kecks at the prospect of becoming a team title sponsor if Repsol decide to take their ball home and not back Honda anymore due to the complete lack of a world title delivered by a Spanish rider recently. Given Red Bull's more global approach to, well, everything, they wouldn't be getting their knickers in a knot about having a rider in their team from their home country. They're Austrian, so they can't anyway. No Spanish rider would leave Puig entirely dis-chuffed, I would imagine. Good.

Speaking of Puig (or Putch or Pweesh or however you pronounce it), I heard the other day that when he is looking at riders for his academy, he pays close attention to the sizes of the respective candidates' parents to gain a measure of how big their sprogs will end up – even asking them shoe sizes. If it looks like their jam-faced little darlings might end-up scraping five feet ten inch mark, they're politely asked to leave.

One wonders what really happened to James Toseland off the start in Spain. He said his bike bogged down but with all of the electronic aids, including launch control which enables riders to have the throttle on the stop while dumping the clutch, it seems impossible. Unless the big button with 'on' scrawled across it hadn't been pressed...

Yamaha have, apparently, said they will not be providing any more than four bikes for the MotoGP grid next year. Which means Rossi and Lorenzo on the full factory bikes, and Ben Spies and Alvaro Bautista on the Monster Yamahas. When asked, team boss Herve Poncharal rolled his eyes, said 'Paf" and nipped off for a cheeky Pernod. Maybe.

250GP star Bautista, meanwhile, is desperate to be in MotoGP but not desperate enough to accept a ride on the big red bikes that some say only Casey Stoner can boss. Let's hope they give it to someone who really does want to ride in the big class and is hungry enough to make it work then, spoilt child.

Pramac Ducati's Mika Kallio totally stunned everyone, including himself, in the tests on Monday by setting the fourth fastest time using a brand-new carbon swingarm in his 'unrideable' Desmosedici, plus some updated electronics and a new tail-piece. The Finn said he now has more confidence in the rear, presumably because the whole thing is now a lot stiffer and he can ride it more like a 250.

Gabor Talmasci could well find himself with two bikes to himself in the Scot Honda team if Yuki Takahashi doesn't stop failing to deliver. The Japanese rider, who has so got a D- for effort this season, can't seem to keep it upright while Talmasci performed well on Sunday, given it was his debut on a bike he had never seen before.