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

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

different tires. It becomes a straight, honest fight to the finish, and once the checkered flag is waved, the matter is settled, and the truth is out.So the relief at the season arriving in earnest is palpable among MotoGP followers. With a new engine

and internet forum visitor, including your humble scribe, were predicting that the Ducatis would take a clean sweep in China, powering away from the field down Shanghai's endless back straight and shorter front straight, leaving the rest to squabble over

longer this time, Hopkins was back into 7th at the start of the next lap, rudely passing Rossi on the brakes into San Donato, the first turn at the end of the front straight.Loris Capirossi had no need of such subtleties to pass Vermeulen. Capirex simply

. For the track just outside Barcelona has the right ingredients to settle this argument: It has a kilometer-long straight which favors outright top speed, allowing a fast bike like the Ducati to pull away using raw horsepower, but it is also one of Valentino

in the middle of the race.It's not just the location, however. The track itself is a pretty dramatic affair, boasting the surprising combination of being the track with the slowest average speed, yet having a 200 mph front straight. But what makes the track

. The only realistic option for saving energy was to get straight to the front and lead for as long as possible. Dictating the pace would be a good deal less tiring than being forced to follow, so getting a good start would be crucialNow, More Than Ever

'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

for 8th, three abreast into the first three turns.As the pack fired down the back straight towards the scary 5th gear right-hand kink of Turn 5, a gap started opening between Nicky Hayden in 3rd and Marco Melandri in 4th. This spurred Rossi into action