Rossi floats back to the top at wet Shanghai

Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to the top of the MotoGP time sheets today as hard work during practice and testing following the last round at Istanbul began to bear fruit on the opening day of the Grand Prix of China. In soaking conditions caused by a steady downpour of fine rain throughout the day, Rossi repeated the form that saw him take a wet victory at the Shanghai circuit last season with the fastest times in both today's free practice sessions.  After setting the pace by just 0.002 seconds from Casey Stoner (Honda) in the morning, the Italian moved up a gear in the afternoon to improve his time by almost three seconds, holding off the challenge of Loris Capirossi (Ducati) by 0.355 seconds with an exemplary display of wet-weather riding. Meanwhile, his Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also reported improved feeling with his YZR-M1 machine following positive progress during the Turkish test session, although the American was struggled to turn that into outright pace this afternoon. Valentino Rossi (1st; 2'09.393, 36 laps) "In Turkey we were able to understand some of the problems we were having with the bike and we found some good solutions. The modifications we made using that data here this morning were really good and now I can ride the bike at 100%. Even though it was wet the grip levels were very good, I was able to get a lot of lean angle in the corners and it was really good fun to ride as I want to. I'm really happy because I was fastest in both free practices today and this is a good sign for the weekend. The bike is working well in the wet but I think the solutions we have found for the setting will also work in the dry. Hopefully we will get the chance to find out tomorrow because the worst scenario would be to have another day of wet practice and then a dry race on Sunday." Colin Edwards (13th; 2'11.838, 24 laps) "I'm reasonably happy with today. We did some good work on the setting of the bike but when we got it to where I wanted to push for a good time we had a minor setback with the tyre and I had to go for a different compound, which didn't quite work out. The main thing is that I'm comfortable with the bike and I'm confident I can go much quicker tomorrow whether it's wet or dry. We basically started out with the dry setting we found in Turkey and made small adaptations for the wet conditions here. We found a really good suspension solution at the end so now we just need to put the whole package together with the right tyres tomorrow and run with it." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "That was a very good session, especially after the problems we had in Istanbul. The engineers made some good steps with the setting and, thanks to their good work at the test in Turkey, Valentino was able to be fast again today. Watching him ride to the best of his ability is always very enjoyable and the situation here is clearly very different to what we found when it rained in Turkey. As far as Colin is concerned his lap time today does not reflect his true potential here. He has found a good setting and, although he couldn't finish the session off as he would have liked, there is a lot more to come from him. We have started off well at other races this year and not ended up with the right result so we have to make sure this good work continues right through until Sunday afternoon."  Rain dampens proceedings for Tech 3 Yamaha Team Although the rain overshadowed proceedings, the conditions gave the Tech 3 Yamaha Team an excellent chance to continue testing the ever improving range of Dunlop wet weather tyres. Both riders tested many different combinations of tyres during the two, one-hour practice sessions and recorded valuable data should the showers continue for the remainder of the weekend with Carlos Checa and James Ellison in 16th and17th positions respectively. Carlos Checa (16th, 2'14.914, 36 laps) "It has been a busy day testing tyres and these wet conditions have given us a perfect chance to find a direction to head with the amount of wet-weather tyres Dunlop has for us. But it's what we have to do to continue and hope we can improve further soon. I am not very happy as I'm five seconds off but that is what happens sometimes when we are testing at the same time as trying to find a setup. Now we have to find the tyre to settle on should these conditions continue over the weekend". James Ellison (17th. 2'15.880, 36 laps) "From this morning we made some adjustments by lowering the bike and softening the bike right off and it worked well as the lap times started to come down. We tried a few different tyres during the session and the last tyre we tried was pretty good. Carlos liked it as well so we have something to work on in the morning but we just have to find a way of generating more heat in the side of the tyre which is the problem we're having. Once we do that we should be in much better position. Testing during a meeting is a bit hard but at the end of the day that is what we are here for". Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "Although the positions of Carlos and James are not the best, we are quite satisfied with the work that has been done today because again, we have done a few hours in the rain and they both have been through a lot of different tyres. "It's a tough job but this is "year one" with Dunlop in MotoGP with a factory bike and they have a lot to learn and a lot to understand to catch up to the other brands. We have to go through this testing program - that is something we have to do - and not everything we test is always suitable. But this is our mission and we have to continue. I'd like to thank my riders - especially Carlos - for the good job he is doing. Hopefully, by the end of the season, with all the tyre testing we do during a Grand Prix, we will be a lot closer. The target is to be a pretty competitive in 2007 but we're not going to catch up with the other two immediately."    Round: 4 - 2006 MotoGP Shanghai Circuit: Shanghai Circuit Length: 5451 Lap Record: 2' 13.716 (Alex Barros, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 59.710 (Sete Gibernau, 2005) Date: 12 May 2006 Temp: 17ºC Free Practice :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  Free Practice  1  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   2' 9.393   2  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   2' 9.748   3  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   2' 10.007   4  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   2' 10.187   5  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   2' 10.247   6  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   2' 10.411   7  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   2' 10.815   8  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   2' 11.016   9  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   2' 11.313   10  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   2' 11.425   11  C. Vermeulen  Suzuki  AUS   2' 11.438   12  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   2' 11.615   13  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   2' 11.838   14  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   2' 12.496   15  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   2' 12.807   16  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   2' 14.914   17  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   2' 15.880