, the home crowd had already been sent wild by fellow Brit Scott Redding's victory in the 125 class, and expectations were being raised from sky high to somewhere beyond the orbit of Pluto. Once the flag dropped, Toseland succumbed to the temptation to make

road-going vehicles run long distances in front of huge crowds. As ovals tend to have banked turns surrounded by high concrete walls, this makes them totally unsuitable for motorcycle racing both in terms of safety, and of the entertainment factor. Yet

the bikes from side to side absolutely key. Of course, this idea lasted right up until the bikes crossed the line to end the first lap of the first race of 2007 at Qatar, as Casey Stoner simply blew past the rest of the field on the Ducati Desmosedici GP7

fast turns with slow turns, and plenty of elevation changes, and always good for some of the best racing of the year, Shanghai is a series of long, high-speed straights linked by tight, slow turns, allowing the fastest bikes to escape and putting an end

around the track once again.My Beautiful LifeIf any illustration was needed of the dark side of being a MotoGP star, then you only need to look at the predicament of Dani Pedrosa. The Repsol Honda man suffered a nasty high-speed crash while leading

and you risk a very fast and very painful tumble, as run wide and hit the gravel at high speed.Too Cool For SchoolAfter a short straight, the first hairpin looms, followed by a left kink, the third left hander in a row. But more danger lurks at Turn 4

fast and just keep getting faster. Not only do you have enraged riders who you have just cut across, block-passed or jammed your bike underneath at MG pushing you from behind, but you are trying to keep the spinning rear under control, the left side

wishes may yet come true.MotoGP Qatar 2008 Race ResultsChampionship standings after the 2008 MotoGP Qatar roundRead more of David Emmett's article over on MotoGPMatters.com

's nominated test tracks. And so to go to Estoril, a track with both a long, high-speed straight and a slow, intricate turns, and a track where nobody has done any testing for many months raises hopes of seeing a more normal result. More normal, and more

left turns, too soft a compound would mean that tires not lasting the whole race, especially if a dry line started to form. The flip side of that coin was that too hard a tire would not retain enough heat in the right side of the tire, with so few right