MotoReview

Last year's rain-soaked Chinese MotoGP was won by Valentino Rossi. Up until then rain had been considered the champ's achilles heel, but after that race and a wet-weather riding masterclass at Donington later in the season it was clear the #46 rider had rid himself of that particular demon.

"Out of all the victories in my career, China last year was the one I least expected because of the problems we had with the bike during the weekend and with the rain on race day. It was the first time I had won in the wet on the Yamaha, so it was a special victory, but this year I would definitely prefer a dry race. The 2006 version M1 didn't work as well as we had hoped in the wet practice sessions in Turkey and we need as much dry track time as possible to get the bike setting as I like it."

Current championship leader Nicky Hayden is rapidly becoming a safe bet, having finished on the podium in every race of the season so far. Unsurprisingly the lower two steps aren't what the ex-dirt track rider has in mind for Shanghai.

"The last race at Turkey was fun but it's no secret that I want to be winning races. The surface at Shanghai is pretty good and the long right-hander heading onto the back straightaway is probably my favourite part. And that straight goes on for days, even at 200mph. Then you hit the hardest braking zone on the circuit for the slow corner at the end of the back straight. It's a pretty weak corner on a MotoGP bike - you just have to brake, brake, brake and brake a bit more." 

And what about the current championship number two man, Loris Capirossi? The Ducati rider qualified for last year's race in 3rd and finished it in 12th. That said, unless it's raining on Sunday you can throw that race result out of the window and look at the front row qualifying result - in the words of Livio Suppo (Ducati Marlboro's team manager), 'We know that both our riders are fast at Shanghai'.

"It's been an amazing start to the season with two fantastic races in Spain and Qatar, even though Turkey didn't go quite so well for us. The good thing is that we scored some useful points there, so we are still just one point off the championship lead. It's a very long season, so every point counts, especially since there are so many strong riders this year.

"Although I know I am fast at Shanghai, the track isn't much fun to ride, especially the first section. The first turn is really, really long, in fact it's more like a roundabout than a corner! Shanghai isn't a technical track, it doesn't have the kind of corners where a good rider can really make a difference. Also, the weather seems very changeable, which complicates everything. It's difficult to say how good the track will be for us because we had so little dry track time there last year, but at the moment I'm very confident in my GP6 and my Bridgestone tyres."

For comments from the rest of the MotoGP riders on Shanghai, see our forums.