Young guns promise more thrills in Shanghai

Nicky Hayden and Marco Melandri lead a quartet of young pretenders to Valentino Rossi's crown to China this weekend for the fourth round of what promises to be the most open title race since the birth of MotoGP in 2002.

While no one has written Rossi off, Hayden, Melandri, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa have already proven that if the seven-times world champion does move to Formula One next year, there will be plenty of talent left in MotoGP.

Italian Melandri won a three-way duel with his fellow Honda riders Stoner and Pedrosa in Turkey last month to pitch himself into third place behind championship leader Hayden and Loris Capirossi.

"I'm going to China feeling fully charged after that great win in Istanbul," said the 23-year-old Melandri.

Just 12 points separate Hayden from Rossi in fifth place and after finishing on the podium in his last seven races, the American knows he must climb the top step soon if he wants to say in front.

"The last race at Turkey was kind of fun but it's no secret that I want to be winning races," said the 24-year-old.

Rossi's disappointing start to the season has been caused by handling problems on his Yamaha, leaving him with just one victory at Qatar.

But the 27-year-old Italian also had problems before winning in torrential rain in Shanghai last year, a victory that was a surprise even to Rossi. "Out of all my victories, China was the one I least expected because we had problems with the bike during the weekend and with the rain on race day," he said.

Carrying the standard for the older hands is Capirossi, who won the season-opener in Spain and trails Hayden by a single point in the championship.

Although the 33-year-old would love to be responsible for extending the Italian monopoly of race wins to 13 this weekend, 16 years of grand prix racing have taught him that title races are marathons not sprints.

"It's a very long season, so every point counts, especially when there are so many strong riders this year," he said.