Rossi ended the longest top step drought since he started his premier class career with a masterful ride in the China MotoGP race at Shanghai. In potentially changeable conditions the ex-champ showed that he still had it in him to dominate and his only challenger was that Spaniard, Pedrosa.

The future of MotoGP has arrived. A masterful display of skill by Lorenzo saw him take victory at Estoril and finally convert a pole position to a win - no mean feat seeing it was his third pole in as many MotoGP starts since his arrival in the prototype class. Pedrosa offered a credible challenge to keep him honest but no one was going to deny the young Spaniard - the other young Spaniard that is! Rossi hung onto third and everyone one else was in their usual positions.

Stoner had a bad day, Toseland had bronchitis, Edwards fell off and Pedrosa was untroubled at the front by a premature celebratory Rossi. You could be forgiven for thinking that this all made up for a spectacle of a race but unfortunately not. Pedrosa now leads the championship on his remarkably quiet win.

It didn’t take long for Casey Stoner to assert both his and Ducati’s supremacy. Of course this wasn’t really to be unexpected – Stoner seems to have melded himself to the Ducati and the symbiotic two-wheeled-aussie hybrid really seems to be the class of the field.

James Toseland, the new kid on the block from World Super Bikes where he won two world championships, has made a bit of an impact in qualifying for the first race at Qatar.