Buzzin MotoGP

Valentino Rossi won the Chinese Moto GP yesterday in Shanghai, after a frustrating start to the 2008 season.  He said “I’m very, very happy, as it’s been a long time without victory.  This was a difficult period, we changed tyres and we had to work very hard.  I knew that we had good potential and we felt good from Friday.  This is the first time that I was able to ride at a good pace after 15 laps.  This morning I was upset when I saw rain, but when I saw it may be possible to ride in the dry I thought that I could win.  I really had to push to beat Dani, it was a great victory for us.”

Rossi on the Fiat Yamaha, hadn’t won a race since last year at Portugal but took the lead in China from lap five and held off Pedrosa, who was right on his tail until the last few laps.

Dani Pedrosa finished in second place for the Repsol Honda team and said “It was a hard race, every lap was faster and faster.  In the end I just slowed down because I saw that I couldn’t get Valentino, and just decided to keep the engine alive and finish second.  I’m very happy to take second here.”

Third place man and reigning World Champion, Casey Stoner, was on pole position for the start of the Chinese Grand Prix but had a lonely race as the front two men pulled ahead.  The Marlboro Ducati man said “The sighting lap let us know it was going to be dry, although we were advised to go for a softer compound.  The team worked hard as always, but we have room to improve and I’m not entirely satisfied with this result.”

James Toseland finished in twelfth position for Tech3 Yamaha and said “Tough day, tough weekend.  Again the conditions were difficult but I got an OK start.  We chose one of the softer tyres because of the cooler temperatures but I think in the end it was a little bit too soft.  It’s frustrating.  I’m looking forward to Le Mans - a French track with a French team.  The qualifying tyres were great but I found life difficult with the race tyres.”

John Hopkins on the Kawasaki was racing in his 100th Moto GP yesterday and was hoping to make it a good one, unfortunately he finished in fourteenth place the same position he had been in on the grid.  Hopkins had been fast in practice on Friday but in the qualifying session on Saturday, he crashed with Alex de Angelis and was left with a painful wound after catching his knee of his own foot peg.

Chris Vermeulen on the Rizla Suzuki had a disastrous race and said “Obviously I’m not very happy with today’s result, in fact that’s probably an understatement!  I had a problem right from the start and the chain kept slipping making the bike really difficult to ride.  I felt like my pace was quicker than the four guys in front of me, but every time I tried to pass them the chain would just slip and I’d lose my momentum.  Then towards the end of lap six the chain come off and I had to go into the pits and that was the race over.”