Shanghai circuit was designed by the same man who penned the Istanbul track we were at a couple of weeks ago. But the difference is staggering. While the Turkish track is undulating and interesting, clearly built with bikes in mind, the Chinese circuit is very obviously geared toward cars with no gradients to speak of and lots of long, long corners coupled with a straight nearly a mile long to really stretch the legs of anything going down it.

Casey Stoner and his Ducati came here as hot favourites to win. The Ducati has the speed to really take advantage of that straight, while the young Australian seems to have gelled instantly with his new team and is riding pretty well faultlessly. His team-mate Loris Capirossi, after a dire start to the season, has begun his challenge properly now as well, though from a long way back. Last year Valentino Rossi managed to destroy his front tyre here, taking him out of the race and probably providing a low spot in a below par season. And Dani Pedrosa took his first MotoGP win here as well. So there's plenty of history, and plenty of expectations, here.

Practice and qualifying showed us something we're not really used to. John Hopkins and the Rizla Suzuki spent all but one practice session at the top of the leaderboard. And he was second for the missing one. Chris Vermeulen was going well on the other Suzuki, too, though not quite as impressively as Hopper. Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi were in the mix at the top, of course, as were Edwards and Pedrosa. Nicky Hayden, too, made a welcome reappearance, running fourth for a lot of the time and starting to look stronger than he has all season so far. The world champion is still clearly struggling with the new 800, which requires such a totally different riding style to his slide and shoot technique which worked so well on the 990.

Practice is one thing, of course, while qualifying is another entirely. No superpole laps in MotoGP, you just get out there and do it, mixing with the others and making the best fist of it you can. Early casualties were Vermeulen and Capirossi who collided in a unfortunate incident and ruled themselves out of the session. Both happily uninjured, the two riders found themselves back in wholly undeserved fourteenth and fifteenth places. Up at the pointy end, Valentino Rossi demolished the outright lap record with an impossibly fast lap which he then nearly equalled, running the best part of a second faster than his nearest rival. And that, astonishingly enough, was John Hopkins, putting the Rizla Suzuki on the front row and going some way toward silencing his, and Suzuki's, critics. Third was Colin Edwards while Casey Stoner headed up the second row on the Ducati rocketship. Row two was completed by Pedrosa and Melandri, while Randy de Puniet headed the third row on the ever improving Kawasaki from Alex Barros and a disappointed Nicky Hayden.

As qualifying and practice are two very different animals, so are qualifying and the race itself. When the lights went out it was indeed Valentino Rossi who made the break away from the line, hotly pursued by Hopkins and Edwards with Stoner taking a watching brief behind. A excellent start by Nicky Hayden went to waste as he was torpedoed from behind by Toni Elias in turn one. Hayden managed to pick the bike up and stay on, albeit at the back of the pack, but Elias was down and out in no uncertain terms - another contribution to his crash or win reputation - and taking Alex Barros out with him. Colin Edwards' appalling luck continued today as well, the Texan seemingly making a bad tyre choice at the start and fading immediately, dropping to fifth by the end of the first lap. No such problems for Hopkins, though, who was fighting hard in third place while his team-mate Vermeulen climbed five spots to finish the first lap in tenth. Casey Stoner, meantime, bided his time and waited until the big straight before simply blasting past Hopper and Rossi to take a clear lead just after the end of the first lap. Everyone thought he'd just clear off at that point, but Rossi and his Yamaha are both made of sterner stuff than that. Rossi then spent the next fifteen laps climbing all over the back of Stoner's machine, sometimes sneaking past under braking or making use of the more agile handling of the smaller machine to get ahead. But Stoner always had that reserve card to play. He could just open the taps a little more and that big red Ducati would just pull away. According to onboard telemetry, at one point he was pulling some 335km/h (210mph) before hauling it down to under 40mph for the humourously placed hairpin immediately afterwards. But always the young Australian was first across the line, and regardless of how hard Rossi was pushing, or indeed how much of the lap he was in front, the only part that counts is crossing the line.

Rossi was indeed pushing very hard. Hard enough for the master to almost appear slightly ragged in places. In fact, after a particularly spirited late braking move on lap sixteen Rossi found himself picking the bike up, having locked the front wheel, and running straight on at the end of the second straight. Though it probably only cost him three or four seconds, that move gave Stoner some breathing space and allowed John Hopkins to slip through into second place. Hopper got his head down and really did his best to capitalise on it, but after just two laps the Italian was able to pass virtually unopposed. Hopper's logic was that he was going to come past at some point anyway, so why not let him go and avoid risking a mechanical failure or a crash by pushing too hard. That's championship thinking.

Further back down the field, Vermeulen and Capirossi were locked together again, carving their way up towards the front after their dire starting positions. The longest delay seemed when they caught up with Randy de Puniet, whose Kawasaki is fast and surprisingly well behaved for a green machine. Ahead of that tussle, Dani Pedrosa and Marco Melandri engaged in a race long scrap which was only settled in favour of the Spaniard in the dying laps of the race. Colin Edwards continued to drop back, it taking all his considerable talent to keep the bike on the track and pointing forwards as his rear tyre was offering essentially no grip at all. But Nicky Hayden's day was even worse, the world champion only managing to climb four places from the back after the first lap incident. Kenny Roberts Jnr is having a pretty grim time at the moment as well, with neither his riding style nor his bike seeming to suit the new engine rules. Last place is not where we expect to see the former champion, especially after his brilliant showing last year. Hopefully things will pick up for him again soon. Alex Barros also managed to remount after the first lap shenanigans but was unable to make any ground.

So up at the front, Casey Stoner kept his head down and rode another mature race to consolidate his lead over Valentino Rossi, both on the track today and in the championship. Though this is certainly a circuit favouring the faster Ducati over the other machinery, those long straights are linked by corners and if the bike didn't handle - or if Stoner wasn't spectacularly talented - the all that speed would count for nothing. Rossi made the best he could of the circumstances to take a solid and good humoured second place while John Hopkins took his long overdue and richly deserved first ever podium. A long gap saw Pedrosa a couple of seconds ahead of Melandri, then another long gap saw the tight bunch of Capirossi, Vermeulen and de Puniet, with Alex Hofmann just behind on the D'Antin Ducati. Carlos Checa rounded out the top ten.

So we've got a two week break before going off to Le Mans for what should be an exciting round. The French circuit is much tighter and has elevation changes as well, making more of a challenge for handling and grip as well as sheer power. There's no doubt that the Ducatis will be quick, but expect to see more Yamahas and Hondas up at the front. Last year Rossi's bike died there when he had such a huge lead that he must have considered pushing it home for the points. It's somewhere he goes well at, and he needs to go well at a lot of places now if he wants to get that title back....

Chinese MotoGP Results

1. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
3. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
5. Marco Melandri (Honda)
6. Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
7. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
8. Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki)
9. Alex Hofmann (Ducati)
10.Carlos Checa (Honda)

MotoGP standings (after four rounds)

1. Casey Stoner 86
2. Valentino Rossi 71
3. Daniel Pedrosa 49
4. Marco Melandri 41
5. John Hopkins 39
6. Toni Elias 35
7. Colin Edwards 31
8. Loris Capirossi 30
9. Nicky Hayden 30
10. Chris Vermeulen 30

SB