It would appear there have been some handbags inside the Alstare Suzuki team as injured rider Max Neukirchner has written on his website he will be fit for winter testing, while the team are under the impression he needs another six months' recovery time, cos that's what the doctor said...

Now that Chris Vermeulen has been confirmed on the Paul Bird Kawasaki, it remains to be seen who will join him. Tom Sykes looks a likely candidate despite the pair's history, but Broc Parkes may keep his seat.

Current Sterigarda Ducati man Shane Byrne is rumoured to have signed a letter of intent to ride for Aprila next year and may be joined by his 2008 British Superbike team-mate Leon Camier. It is thought the Noale factory wants to run two teams in World Superbikes next year.

Althea are apparently in talks to move away from Honda and will run a satellite Ducati team next year. Alex De Angelis is in the frame to take the ride.

James Toseland has said he wants to win more World Superbike titles than Carl Fogarty. So that's another three then. Shouldn't be too difficult for the Yorkshire pianist (careful). Haga and Corser must be close to retirement, Spies isn't there, so all he has to do is deal with Fabrizio, Rea and Haslam, all on works bikes. Hmmmmm.

Apparently, Ben Spies isn't going to the Valencian MotoGP round in order to race Toseland. I don't think he will be either. He will be much nearer the front than that.

Click here for a video of Eugene Laverty doing the washing up on PIPCAM

And here for one of Dan Linfoot in his pit 'garage' in France, also on PIPCAM

It would appear the war of words between Messrs Crutchlow and Laverty may be heating up, with the Coventry kid saying: "Eugene crashed but he was no real problem during the race, the pace was really slow and I knew I could go to low 1’41s towards the end." Oooooooooooooooo, get her...