to need a little help. Under normal circumstances, the most obvious source of assistance would be his team mate, Dani Pedrosa. Though Estoril demonstrated that these are not normal circumstances, Pedrosa has been extremely contrite in recent interviews

feet, with a victory at Motegi and a 2nd place at Phillip Island, and has a few scores to settle with Ducati before he leaves. Capirossi will be hell-bent on winning as much as possible before he goes, to demonstrate to Ducati his displeasure at the way

in which The Doctor fought his way forward to lead and then dominate the race was a powerful demonstration that Rossi had lost none of his passion for racing and his desire to win. The question was, was this a turning point? Now that Rossi had won at a

behind the 990s. On the first day of testing, Valentino Rossi demonstrated just how far behind Ilmor is, by lapping the track faster on the 800 than he had during the race on the 990, setting a stunning time of 1:32.7, fast enough to beat Loris Capirossi

again, Rossi demonstrated the Yamaha's amazing stability on the brakes, going back past into the lead into San Donato.Though Rossi was past, Pedrosa was not going to just roll over. Pedrosa kept as close as he could to Rossi, trying to get back past down

as the back straight.The Lessons Of HistoryJust how important those straights are was demonstrated last year. Valentino Rossi proved his mastery of the Shanghai track by setting a pole time 6/10ths faster than the previous record set on the old 990cc bikes

best, as there's less to be gained by standing the bike up to get on the gas early. One rather surprising side effect of these changes has been the return of the highside, as demonstrated so forcefully by John Hopkins during the tests at Qatar

. With Dovizioso at the head of the pack, Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner and Shinya Nakano were all giving chase, all close enough to rope each other in, but not close enough to pass. Any attempt to pass usually met with failure, as Hayden demonstrated by trying to jam

at Kawasaki for next season, and he will announce this move in the very near future. As for this weekend, Capirex is likely to continue his struggle with the GP7.That the problem is mostly with Capirossi is demonstrated by the unlikely achievements

last weekend, grabbing his first front row start of the year. His race in the dry didn't live up to the expectations he created during qualifying, but it demonstrated his ability. Now having to fight for his place at Suzuki for next year, Vermeulen