A sense of uneasy calm hung over the Ricardo Tormo circuit here in Valencia as the two-day MotoGP test session began, with nothing really resolved over the Rossi-Marquez imbroglio. Rossi claims that Marquez colluded against him, Marquez claims innocence.
How will Rossi perform during the sessions on the new Michelin rubber that he has already criticised this season? How will he find the fire to maintain the level of intensity that he put into this season, with his championship bid collapsing so sourly on Sunday.
Spain, where motorcycle racing is a huge sport - this country holds no less than four MotoGP rounds per year, remember - is rife with speculation. The national newspaper El Mundo is calling this test session "the false calm after the earthquake". It suggests that the paddock here is still conjecturing that Rossi could even retire and not compete in 2016 but he is out on track today so the weight behind such comments are questionable at present.
El Mundo continues: "Histrionic as never before, rabid in defeat, losing his composure at the age of 36, the Italian let fly at everyone: his team-mate who became champion, his rivals - including Honda for allowing one of its riders to let another factory's competitor win - and, more serious, the championship organisers to whom he is a key personality."
Without Rossi, "2016 would be a wasteland, but with him it could be a shootout from the first day," the article adds. It points out that among the organisations that Rossi has upset are key sponsors Repsol and Movistar.
