By Matt Roberts BBC Sport in Shanghai

Lorenzo fractured his left ankle after being thrown off his bike

He seemingly defied medical science to qualify fourth on the grid and before battling to fourth in the race despite fracturing his ankle in one of racing's highest ever high-sides on Friday.

Don't try comparing him to the original miracle worker though, he's happy to do that himself.

In an interview with a Spanish newspaper published last Friday he was asked about the negative opinion some people hold of him in Spain, and the youngster answered with typical devilment: "Even Jesus Christ, the kindest man to walk the earth, wasn't to everybody's liking. How can I expect to be? It's impossible."

When it comes to quotes, few riders are better value for money than Colin Edwards.

The Texan Tornado breezed into Saturday's front row press conference five minutes late. "Sorry I'm late," he explained. "I was playing Sudoku!"

The stand-up continued when he was asked about the dramatic turnaround in bike performance that had allowed him to set pole position despite struggling in Friday's free practice.

"Yesterday we couldn't even touch our ass with both hands but we pulled it together for today."

And on the lap that gave him pole position: "Oh, just the usual qualifying sh*t - take your brain out and open the throttle!"

The jokes ended for Colin on Sunday though - after his two previous pole positions in MotoGP were spoiled by wet races, he must have thought he was jinxed when the heavens opened on Sunday morning.

Edwards finished seventh in Shanghai

Even though the track had dried out for the race Colin, like his team-mate James Toseland, didn't have a comfortable set-up for the cooler track conditions and he went backwards in the race.

It was a tough weekend for James and in the race he paid for his lack of track knowledge - not because it is particularly hard to remember the way around the circuit (he had memorised every bump and turn on Thursday by completing lap after lap on foot and on a scooter) but because it is even more difficult to ride around set-up problems if you are not familiar with every nuance of a track.

It promises to be a tough few weeks ahead for the Yorkshireman, who visits Le Mans, Mugello and Catalunya - all for the first time - in the next three races, so fans may have to be patient.

Bookmakers will have done well out of the press room this weekend, with several hacks hoping to catch the sleeping bookies in Europe off guard when the rain fell on Sunday morning.

Wet specialist Chris Vermeulen was the popular choice, with Ant West a cheeky outside bet for a podium, but by the time William Hill had put his slippers on it had turned into an entirely different story in China.

What we were told in pit-lane was a fried clutch for Vermeulen turned out to be a broken chain, whilst Westy and his Kawasaki team-mate John Hopkins cited a mysterious disappearance of rear grip for their dismal 17th and 14th place finishes respectively.

Hopkins had also looked like a decent proposition after a good showing in the wet warm-up but those traction problems combined with a few rare mistakes in the race cost him dearly.

A coming together with Alex de Angelis at the end of the main straight left him nursing a painful puncture wound in his knee, which got caught on his own foot peg.

Punters may be wondering why Kawasaki and Suzuki are finding results hard to come by this year and the answer lies largely in the increased competition they're up against.

With the two Tech3 Yamahas suddenly propelled from the back of the pack to the front and Honda's factory and satellite bikes right back on the pace, the regular podium challenges we saw last year from those distinctive green and blue bikes will be fewer and farther between.

Finally, it's about time we congratulated Ireland's Eugene Laverty for his second consecutive points-scoring ride in the 250cc class.

The conditions for the day's earlier races were really tricky and in the 125s all three Brits - Bradley Smith, Danny Webb and Scott Redding - crashed out.

So it was a measure of Laverty's skill that he brought a vastly underpowered privateer bike home in a career-best 13th place and it was a measure of his ambition that his only feelings after the race were of disappointment at allowing title favourite Alvaro Bautista to pass him on the last lap.

Typical racer.