traffic on them that any speed much above the advisory 130 km/h is extraordinarily perilous, if not physically impossible, Germany's motorway system remains a place where motor vehicles can be held at their maximum speed for many minutes on end

straights, 1.2 kilometers and 1 kilometer in length, with a few squiggles to join the straights together, all meant to resemble  the Chinese character "Shang", meaning "High" or "Above", which forms part of Shanghai's name. The problem is that the simple

Rossi setting laps well into the 1'56s on race tires. Then, when qualifying came, Valentino Rossi shattered Casey Stoner's pole record from 2006 by nearly 7/10ths of a second. The only question left was how much quicker would the laps be in the race. We

hairpin, and the shorter finish straight is followed by the seemingly endless curl of Turns 1 and 2. This is really a single, long, decreasing radius right-hander, which is almost impossible to find a single line through, as Turn 2 is then followed by a

. After all, it is easily within the reach of a World Superbike, costing upwards of 200,000 euros, and so factories - and more importantly, privateers - would be free to explore other ways of decreasing lap times.The danger of limiting top speed

for the 2008 MotoGP championship will be laid over the next few weeks, and it starts on Sunday, at Le Mans. There's a long hard road ahead, and what better place to take the first step than at a track so steeped in legend? Read more articles by David Emmett

the restrictions - imposed by banning the use of front wheel speed sensors - by doing some clever calculations using comparisons of throttle opening, rear wheel speed and engine speed. This way, the team was able to build a traction control system that passed every

out. The most recent victim was Sete Gibernau, who crashed out of the lead in 2005 when he was the first of the field to hit the freshly-soaked Turn 1 just after it started to rain.Whatever The WeatherBut it is unfair to characterize Estoril solely

is to be done is occasionally set out in a clear list of suggested actions, such as Fausto Gresini's proposals to reduce the cost of racing, which included a ban on carbon fiber brakes, running three bikes to a two man team, a rev limit of 17,000 rpm and engines

at the facts, it's hard to fault them. Rossi has won here when he has been off form and on awful bikes. He won in 2006, when still suffering with terrible chatter in his 990cc M1, and he won in 2007, when at least 10 horsepower down on the mighty Ducatis