Don't take too much notice of today's times, they were all in the wet--except for the brave souls who put slicks in
at the very end of Free Practice 1. Tomorrow promises to be much nicer and race day is forecast to be a scorcher. So
let's take a look behind the scenes of a few of the teams and try and work out where the season will go from here.

First off, Valentino Rossi is making encouraging noises about staying in MotoGP and about staying with Yamaha. After
the tax debacle of last year, he now manages himself, which makes finding time to talk at the track quite difficult.
However, he did hint that his main decision is whether to re-sign for one year or two--'without any surprises.'

His semi-detached team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is still using sticks to get around and reckons he is 70 to 75% fit. He
admits to having a reaction after the race in France (you would with two broken ankles, wouldn't you?) but said that
mentally it wasn't too tiring. The two races he has ridden injured, he said, have taught him how to pass on a MotoGP
bike. In the first three races he started from pole so didn't have to do too much overtaking...

Honda finally get to race their pneumatic-valve motor this weekend, with test rider Tady Okada in the saddle. He had
a big crash when he locked the front in the wet this afternoon but escaped unhurt. The new motor's rev ceiling is
1000rpm up on the conventional motor but HRC won't talk numbers. Regular Repsol riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa
may use it in a weeks time in Barcelona. The reason that it's taken so long to appear is that HRC revised their
targets when it became apparent just how good the conventional motor was. The feeling is that when it does get in the hands of the factory team riders we should expect a quantum jump in performance, not just a slight tweak to the
fuel efficiency.

Casey Stoner looked more like his old self. Venturing out of the pits from time to time to put in a lap that
frightened the rest. The Champ claims there is no extra pressure on him at Ducati's home race despite the fact he
prefers a bit of pressure to make him concentrate. There's plenty of pressure on Marco Melandri, but his situation
isn't improving. No matter what he does with set-up, the lap times don't change. The poor lad looks lost. Once again
the two satellite team Ducatis and Marco ended bottom of the time sheets today: 'I didn't feel I could ride.'

Did you see Alex Debon's win in the 250cc race in France? It was wet and he romped away. The dreaded words traction
control were mentioned, and it's true: some factory Aprilia 250s now have seven-stage TC controlled by a button on
the bars.