A few laps in to Sunday's race, every marshal's post suddenly started furiously waving white flags. Those of us of a certain age started wondering who the ambulance was on track to pick up; then we remembered the new rain rules. The flags meant that Race Direction had been told it was raining on the first part of the lap and riders were now allowed to come in and change bikes, as per the new rules designed to ensure races aren't stopped because of the weather.

Right on cue a bike came down pit lane, but it was only Battaini on the WCM coming in to retire. The rain wasn't that bad, lap times didn't come down much until seven laps from the end when Rossi and Biaggi, dicing for second place, both made amazing saves at Turn one. Still, nobody came down pit lane. In fact nobody took advantage of the new regulations.

None of which stopped the arguments about the new system. There is a faction that regards the new rules as a crime against humanity, but their argument was somewhat negated by the fact that if the old system had still been in force we would have had exactly the same result: the field racing on a damp, patchy track on slicks. If the Portuguese GP had been stopped we wold have had a second start piling down into the wettest part of the track, turn one. That was what happened at Mugello last year, after the which the riders did a lot of complaining. This time a few of them definitely wanted to complain about something but couldn't quite decide what.

We're going to have to wait for a situation where a rider can afford to give away the best part of a minute before we see the new rules used. Assen is the bookies' favourite, although Le Mans runs it close. Northern France in the middle of May is not somewhere you go to get a suntan.

Alex Barros totally dominated the Estoril weekend; he was fastest in every session, survived a late push from Valentino Rossi to win, and only just failed to take the lap record off the Italian. Much of paddock was happy, simply because Alex is such a well-liked guy. Also, he saw his home GP cancelled a few weeks ago so declared that Portugal was his home race (common language, you see) and was rewarded with a large and vocal Brazilian contingent in the stands.
More than anything, Estoril was a reminder why HRC employed Alex to head the Repsol team last year. As usual, fans' memories are short so it's worth remembering that in the first year of MotoGP, 2002, Alex was given an RCV for the last four races, won four of them and got on the rostrum in the other two. His first win, at Motegi, came the race after Rossi had stitched up the title and then spent the intervening period doing some serious partying.

Barros's win at Valencia was a completely different bowl of paella.

After an earthshaking last lap Alex won and Rossi was not happy, late admitting that for once a faster guy had beaten him. You can count the times Valentino has had to make that admission on the fingers of one foot.

Yamaha stole Barros for 2003 but an ugly crash at that tragic Suzuka race damaged his knee enough to ruin the first half of the season. Just as he was getting back to fitness he was hit by Suzuki's replacement rider Kagayama in Sunday morning warm up for the British GP. His shoulder was damaged enough to require surgery over Winter. Basically, 2003 was a write-off. But HRC remembered and, allegedly with the urging of the team sponsor, resigned him for '04. His three crashes while in sure-fire rostrum positions (Catalunya, Assen and Brno) reminded everyone of his Lucky Strike Suzuki days when he crashed on the last lap while leading at both Jerez and Assen.

The link between now and 2002 is the Sito Pons team. In '02 the bikes were black and sponsored by West, now they're yellow with Camel on the side but many of the personnel and much of the infrastructure is the same. It seems that, like many before him, Alex is happier in a team owned and run by Latins than in the antiseptic atmosphere of the HRC squad.
Not many people noticed anything other than Rossi and Gibernau in Jerez so you can be forgiven for not knowing that Alex Barros overcame a terrible start to fight through to fourth at the flag. It'll only take another result like that and he'll become Honda's challenger to Rossi.

If that's what happens the irony of the situation of HRC focussing on the rider they sacked at the end of last year won't be lost on the paddock.

Before that keep an eye on Rossi's attitude to Barros. Vale was conspicuously happy for Alex on Sunday, but if that attitude changes it'll mean he sees the Brazilian as more than a one-hit wonder.

By the way, on the subject of those flags, I was stupid to have thought an ambulance would be on track in this day and age. Every track used by MotoGP has an internal service road. Now it's a long time since I've been to Laguna, but we won't need to get those ambulance flags out of storage, will we?

Julian Ryder is an author of several books and is a MotoGP broadcaster for Eurosport.