Casey Stoner has revived his chances of retaining the World Championship title after two stunning wins in one week. Last weekend, MotoGP betting fans saw him first to cross the line at Donington and yesterday he cruised to an easy victory in the Dutch MotoGP at Assen. Now just twenty five points away from Valentino Rossi and twenty nine short of leader, Dani Pedrosa, Stoner, second favourite with online bookies, looks set to mount a strong defence of his title.

Donington saw the debut of the new Ducati software program which has boosted the pace of the GP8 bike and given Stoner the missing edge he needs to maintain dominance. Rossi looks on ruefully and concedes that ‘ Casey has ridden very fast and on the limit all season but now he is one second faster so they must have found something different that is very strong to use’.

Yamaha are rushing to produce their own updated software for the YZR-M1 although Rossi fears this will not appear prior to MotoGP’s month-long summer break which begins after Laguna Seca on July 20.

Rossi finished in eleventh place at Assen after a mistake in the first lap caused him to crash and have to continue with a damaged machine. Dani Pedrosa finished in second place with Colin Edwards in third. British rider James Toseland disappointed British online betting punters with a below par ninth place following on from his disastrous first lap crash at Donington.