at Shanghai made it painfully clear that Yamaha and Honda had got the new 800 class painfully wrong, and that the team at Ducati had got it just right.This year, though, Casey Stoner won't have it so easy. Last year, the magical combination of Stoner

passes means that The Doctor can hustle through the chicane and round the Esses faster than any rider on track, and unlike last year, his M1 now has the beans to stay with the Ducati and the Honda down the front straight as well.In fact, the 2008

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

run up to the hairpin left at Seat.That hairpin represented Stoner's next shot at the Repsol Honda. Stoner closed on the run into the sharp left, but the shapes his Ducati had made at Repsol were a signal that his tires weren't ready yet. Stoner braked

advantage of the inside line at turn 1 which 3rd place on the grid provided, beating Valentino Rossi into the kink under the footbridge, forcing the Italian to cede his position. Rossi wouldn't be denied for long, though. Forced behind the Repsol Honda

, it was the Repsol Hondas which shot past and ahead, both Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden getting a rocket launch off the line. Pedrosa and Hayden entered the turn level, but Pedrosa had the inside line and held it. But Hayden would not be gainsaid, and clung onto

's Repsol Honda team mate Nicky Hayden, but Hayden had the outside line at Turn 1, and as they flicked left to head towards Turn 2, Lorenzo had the better line, and was back up to 3rd. Hayden's choice of line into the first corner would cost him more dearly

fitted with a combustion engine. From the little Piaggio Ape three-wheeler with the open megaphone exhaust (no good for horsepower on a small capacity two-stroke engine, but oh, the noise!) to brand new Honda Fireblades being bounced off the rev limiter

underlined the speed of the Repsol Hondas off the line by gaining two places to 4th. Into San Donato, it was polesitter Valentino Rossi who was the big loser, dropping to 5th as the approached the corner. But having the pole meant sitting on the inside line

the line like demented banshees, Casey Stoner lived up to his billing as one of the fastest starters on the grid, firing off the line and into Redgate, the long, scary first right hander, ahead of the pack. Behind Stoner, the Hondas were also getting