Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

The first visit to China of the bunfight that is MotoGp. A fantastic though highly technical circuit 20 miles outside Shanghai, with some of the best facilities, the longest straight and possibly the grippiest surface anywhere on the calendar. At least one of those things would come in very useful over the weekend.

Practice and qualifying were interesting more for who wasn't around than for who did what. Valentino Rossi was notable by his absence from the top of the time cards, struggling to find grip and front end confidence on the Yamaha. Alex Hoffman was absent entirely, his broken scaphoid (acquired in an embarrassing low speed demo ride in Portugal) ruling him out and his seat being taken by Olivier Jacque in what seemed his first excursion on a bike in months. Makoto Tamada is similarly absent with the same injury, and his ride has been taken by World Supersport refugee Jurgen van der Goorbergh making his MotoGp debut. Shane Byrne and the KTM/Roberts team were also absent, a lack of spares being the official reason for their not attending. There are many whispers about other possibilities but we'll ignore them for now and look forward to seeing the team at Le Mans in a couple of weeks. Top of the sheets, then, was Sete Gibernau with his team mate Marco Melandri alongside. The Honda pairing looked solid all weekend and the scene was definitely set for Gibernau to start going for the title that has been so elusive for so long. Loris Capirossi did a sterling job to bring the Ducati in third, ahead of surprise fourth place qualifier John Hopkins on the Suzuki. Nicky Hayden was next, just ahead of Rossi who started just his second race more than a second off pole. Carlos Checa was in seventh with new boy Toni Elias eighth on the Yamaha, ahead of Kenny Roberts Jnr making it a Good Day for Suzuki with their best showing, in qualifying anyway, for some time. Colin Edwards had a torrid time, qualifying thirteenth and not getting on well with the track. He was doing better than Biaggi, though, who lined up one place further down the grid. An idea of how things are moving on, by the way, can be seen in Carlos Checa's speed through the timing lights in qualifying. 342.9km/h or, in proper measurements, 214mph. Crikey.

Practice and qualifying had been a mix of wet and dry. Nobody had any circuit experience and nobody had any data to go on. All they wanted was for the weather to be consistent. And on race day it was. Consistently wet. At one point it seemed to be raining frogs, but it was just that there was so much water on the track that they came out for a paddle. Yes, really.

Sitting on the grid it must have been hard to see the lights as the rain streamed down. Certainly a number of people will be using that as an excuse, as we'll see later. As the race got underway, Hopkins got the drop on everyone and shot off from his second row, hotly followed by Rossi and Elias. Gibernau, who must have been blinded by the rain, was slow off the mark and then compounded his error by running into the first corner too hot and going from pole to fifth in just one corner. But the man really on the move was Kenny Roberts Junior. Rumour had it that the Bridgestone tyres weren't too good in the wet, but whatever the truth was, both Suzukis were going, and being ridden, brilliantly. Roberts despatched his team mate a few turns in and set about building a lead over Rossi who has climbed into second. And indeed he succeeded, pulling out well over a second by lap five and looking every inch the former champion that he is. Then the Suzuki stopped and Rossi sailed past. A little further back and a right royal battle was going on between Elias, Hopkins, Gibernau, Melandri and Biaggi, with positions swapping the whole time. Elias must be another man who was blinded by the rain on the start line as he was invited in for a ride through penalty having gone before the lights went out. Alex Barros was called to join him for the same reason. Talking about entering the pits, though, leads us neatly onto Carlos Checa who made probably the fastest pitlane entry I have ever seen. Sliding along next to his bike. Troy Bayliss, normally great in the wet, made an unfortunate error and slid out as well, while John Hopkins made life easier for the others around him by making an excursion onto the gravel, happily staying upright.

Now I'd like you to remember that Olivier Jacque hasn't been on a GP bike for over a year, hasn't raced bikes for about the same time and is only here for a couple of races while Hoffman gets better. I'd also like you to remember that van der Goorbergh hasn't ever been on a MotoGP bike before. He normally races Supersport - that's treaded tyres and around half the power of the Honda. Bearing these things in mind, perhaps you could explain what happened next. Because both of them were riding the wheels off their machines and causing a lot of grief to people who should have just cleared off and left them behind. To everyone, in fact, other than Rossi who was able to take advantage of the lack of spray to make some serious space ahead of Gibernau. Indeed as the race went on it became apparent that these two weren't outclassed at all. Far from it, in fact, as Jacque in particular took the Kawasaki - not exactly renowned for its good manners or flexible power delivery - and proceeded to barge his way past Biaggi, Melandri and Gibernau before starting to reel in Rossi in spectacular style, taking fastest lap after fastest lap. Jurgen van der Goorbergh wasn't quite as fortunate but harried Biaggi all the way to the line, managing to stay ahead of John Hopkins who, with a lot to make up, also turned in a few fastest laps on his way to seventh place. Up at the front of the field, Rossi was doing a fine job of making a badly handling and underpowered bike look like a pussycat while Jacque made an equally good job of making himself look like a very sure employment prospect. Behind them, though, Gibernau was having a horrible time. Rear grip problems made him slow down and fall into the clutches of man-on-a-mission Marco Melandri who made short work of his teammate while relegating him to fourth ahead of Biaggi. Colin Edwards, despite appearing to blow up his Yamaha with a spectacular burt of smoke and flame from the exhaust, kept running at a highly respectable pace to finish eighth, a few seconds ahead of Nicky Hayden with Ruben Xaus rounding off the top ten.

So. A new circuit, not exactly loved by all the riders but certainly interesting and highly technical. But what a race, with plenty of action, close racing and a result that few of us would have expected. The next round is back in Europe, at Le Mans in a fortnight's time. Bring it on...

Results

1 V Rossi, Yamaha
2 O Jacque, Kawasaki
3 M Melandri, Honda
4 S Gibernau, Honda
5 M Biaggi, Honda
6 J vd Goorbergh, Honda
7 J Hopkins, Suzuki
8 C Edwards, Honda
9 N Hayden, Honda
10 R Xaus, Yamaha

Championship Standing after 3 rounds

70 V Rossi
45 M Melandri
43 A Barros
36 M Biaggi
33 S Gibernau
25 C Edwards
20 O Jacque
19 S Nakano
17 C Checa
16 N Hayden