Rossi wins in China

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi took an impressive victory in Shanghai today, his second at the circuit having won the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix with Yamaha in 2005. It was Rossi's 89th career victory but his first in seven races, since Estoril last year, as well as his first on Bridgestone tyres.

Rossi had looked strong from Friday morning and he was clearly in good shape for the race, but after two days of high temperatures and sunshine, heavy rain throughout the morning threatened to turn the established order on its head. The rain ceased in the late morning however and the track began to dry out with the aid of a warm wind, meaning the race was finally declared dry. Starting from second on the grid behind Colin Edwards, Rossi crossed the line first time in fourth but had made it back to second by the end of the third lap, passing Casey Stoner and pole-sitter Colin Edwards in the process. His next target was Dani Pedrosa and he made his move on the Spaniard at the end of the back straight to take the lead. From then on the Italian led to the chequered flag but it was nail-bitingly close for the majority of the remaining 17 laps, with less than half a second between them and the pair the only two lapping consistently in the 1'59s. On lap 19 Pedrosa began to tail off and Rossi eventually took victory by 3.890 seconds, with Casey Stoner over 15 seconds back in third.

The other side of the Fiat Yamaha garage had an almost equally happy day as Jorge Lorenzo shook off the pain from his fractured ankle to take a brave fourth place, something that was unimaginable after his crash on Friday morning. Rossi is the fourth different rider to win in four races this season and the championship is wide open, with Lorenzo seven points off Pedrosa in second and Rossi just two points behind him in third.

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, 1st:
"After seven races it is a great feeling to win again; I am very happy! This is a very important result for us because above all I was able to ride exactly how I wanted from start to finish and this was great fun for me. I had a great battle with Pedrosa and he pushed me hard and to be doing 1'59s until the end was unbelievable! All weekend we were hoping the rain wouldn't come so when we saw it this morning we were quite disappointed, then it started to dry out so we were praying that it would dry completely; we were lucky today! We worked very well with Bridgestone and together with their technicians we made a late tyre change and it was the right choice because my tyre worked very well until the end, as my times showed! It's the first win for us with Bridgestone so this is a great moment also for this reason and I want to say thank you to them. We were fast from Friday morning here and step by step we've found the perfect set-up and today the hard work paid off for everyone. We've had four races and four different winners so this shows how close the championship is, now we need to keep going because our rivals are all very near. Lorenzo did a great race today with his injuries, so this is a good day for everyone in the team. Thank you to my team and everyone at Yamaha, it's great to be here again."

Dani Pedrosa, Honda, 2nd:
"I'm very happy with today's result. We had been expecting a wet race, so to get second today is fantastic and it's 20 good points for the championship. I started a bit cautious during the early laps because I didn't know what the track conditions were like, but then Valentino and I began to set an extremely fast pace. Lap by lap our rhythm got faster. I had the advantage through the middle section of the track, he had the advantage through the first and last sections. My Michelin tyres were working really well and we were riding at lap record pace all through the race. The wind was very strong today, so my engine was over-revving, which is why I decided to ride a little more conservatively in the final laps to secure second place and the world championship lead."

Casey Stoner, Ducati, 3rd:
"I'm disappointed to be honest because I know we could have done better today. The bike has worked really well in practice and we thought we had the ideal set-up for today but we changed a couple of things and for one reason or another the package just wasn't as good as before. I made a good start and I was happy with that but even in the first corner I couldn't get the bike turned, Colin Edwards came past me, and that was the story of the race. As the race wore on my lap times improved but it was too little too late and in any case it wouldn't have been enough for me to stick with the lead guys. I'm disappointed this has happened today - not so really for third place which is a good result but for the big gap from the lead. I know we can do much better so we will put this behind us, wipe the slate clean and try to do better next time out."

KAWASAKI BATTLES TRACTION PROBLEMS
Kawasaki's John Hopkins and Anthony West were left frustrated today, after rear traction problems left them unable to fulfil their true potential in this afternoon's 22-lap Chinese Grand Prix. Hopkins finished a difficult race in 14th position, with West crossing the line a further 20 seconds back in 17th place.

After qualifying on the fifth row of the grid yesterday, Hopkins was quick to make up places from the start of today's race. The Anglo-American put himself in touch with the leaders, including eventual race winner Valentino Rossi, by riding around the outside of the field at turn one. Unfortunately, Hopkins had it all to do again after a coming together with Alex de Angelis forced him to run on at the end of the main straight, and left him nursing a painful puncture wound after catching his knee on his own foot peg.

Rear traction problems hampered the 24-year-old Kawasaki pilot's attempts to work his way back through the field, but his persistence and determination were rewarded with two valuable championship points, as he fought his way up to 14th place by race end.

Team manager Michael Bartholemy told the MotoGP web, "We had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time because we were saying `ok we need a month or a month and a half with John´s development´, and normally we have performed quite well here. John has also done well here for the last two years, fourth and third so our expectations were quite high.

"On Friday things were looking quite good. In both sessions John was fifth and in the morning Anthony was tenth so we were quite positive. So we are disappointed with the result as it was possible for us to have finished sixth or seventh. The starting position was quite far from the front and we didn´t have enough traction during the race so of course we are disappointed at this stage."

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