21-year-old
Casey Stoner heads for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai brimming with confidence after winning two of the opening three grands prix of the 2007
MotoGP season.
On his debut season with Ducati Marlboro, the Australian leads seven times world champion
Valentino Rossi by ten points and returns to a track where he has already tasted victory in the 250cc class.
Stoner’s comprehensive wins in Qatar and Turkey have laid down the marker for the season while Rossi will be praying for no repeat of the tyre problems that wrecked his chances in Turkey and also caused him to retire in China last year.
It will be tough for Rossi around the 3.281 miles Shanghai circuit fighting against the superior top speed of the Ducati compared to his Fiat Yamaha on the two long straights and also worrying about tyre problems following Bridgestone’s total domination of the proceedings in Turkey.
However the Italian, who won the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix two years ago, enjoys than a challenge and the 22-lap encounter on Sunday could be another classic.
Dani Pedrosa dominated qualifying and the race last year to secure his maiden MotoGP victory. The Repsol Honda rider is still battered and bruised from his first lap crash in Turkey but will be fit to defend his third place in the championship from his old 125 and 250cc sparring partner
Toni Elias who’s having a superb season riding the Gresini Honda.
Spaniard Elias finished second in Turkey, upset Rossi with some of his overtaking manoeuvres and moved in front of team-mate
Marco Melandri in the championship. Rossi’s team-mate
Colin Edwards, who was third in China last year, was also a victim of the first lap crash in Turkey. The former World Superbike champion is showing his best ever MotoGP form, finishing third in
Jerez and qualifying second behind Rossi in Turkey.
Reigning world champion
Nicky Hayden is struggling to get to grips with the 800cc Repsol Honda but typically he’s battling through the crisis to keep picking up championship points. He shares sixth place with Edwards but 35 points behind Stoner and the American would love a repeat of the second place he secured last year.
36-year-old Brazilian Alex Barros has returned to MotoGP this season and displayed all his old skills with a brilliant fourth place on the Pramac d’Antin Ducati in Turkey after a superb battle with the Ducati of
Loris Capirossi, Melandri, the Rizla Suzuki of
John Hopkins and Hayden. Veterans Barros and new dad Capirossi were back to their very best and so it's youngsters beware in China.
Hopkins will surely secure that first MotoGP podium finish very soon while his team-mate
Chris Vermeulen was the unsung hero in Turkey. He joined Olivier Jacque, Pedrosa and Edwards in the dirt before the end of the first lap but remounted the Suzuki to not only finish a superb eleventh but also set the fastest lap of the race.
Randy de Puniet and Alex Hofmann will take heart from their top ten finishes in Turkey but the likes of Carlos Checa,
Shinya Nakano, Makoto Tamada and
Kenny Roberts will be looking to kick their season into gear this weekend.
The two great rivals,
Jorge Lorenzo and
Andrea Dovizioso, go head to head once again in another 250cc duel. Italian Dovizioso won the last breathtaking encounter in Turkey but the Scot Honda rider still trails world champion Lorenzo by 18 points. Riding the Fortuna Aprilia, Lorenzo won the opening two races but knows that Dovizioso’s new found determination will give him a tough time in the 21-lap encounter on Sunday.
125cc world champion Alvaro Bautista was third in Turkey, with just three tenths of a second separating the podium finishers, while his team-mate Alex De Angelis is third in the championship after finishing fourth. Last year Lorenzo’s former team-mate Hector Barbera won the race from Dovizioso in a blanket finish.
Just ten points separate the leading three riders in the 125cc championship with Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi leading the way from his Bancaja Aprilia team-mate Hector Faubel by ten points with Lukas Pesek in third, a further one point adrift.
