MotoReview

Eventually the #46 bike made it up as far as fifth place, but it didn't last long as Rossi soon entered the pits - it seemed as though he had a problem with his rear tyre. After a quick tyre change he was back out on track, only to realise after that it was in fact the front that had gone. After one pit stop Rossi might have been able to scrape back a point or two, but not after two. The DNF sees Rossi slip down to sixth in the world championship, 32 points behind the current leader Nicky Hayden.

Despite Edwards being on the same bike and tyres he seemed to be having no such problems in third place. The Suzuki of John Hopkins eventually finished in fourth - his best ever MotoGP result - with a performance that Paul Denning (Suzuki's team manager) described as a 'demonstration [of John's] true potential'. The second GSV-R did not have such a good race, with Chris Vermeulen crashing out fairly early in the race after losing the front of the bike.

In eighth and ninth were the Ducatis of Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau, who once again seemed quick at the start but was unable to keep up the pace as his tyres faded. Rounding out the top 10 was Super Shinya Nakano on the Kawasaki ZX-RR.

View the full race results | Pictures from Shanghai

The MotoGP paddock is now flying straight to Le Mans for the French GP which will take place next Sunday on the 21st of May.