Colin Edwards took a surprise podium in round 10 and looked very close to getting his first premier class victory after scything through the field from a slow start to finish in second place.
The Monster Yamaha rider and long-time Arai racer had a very cautious start, taking his time to get heat and confidence into his tyres. With early leaders Elias, Lorenzo and Rossi all crashing out, the two-time World Superbike champion used his experience to reel in eventual winner, Andrea Dovizioso.
Though Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa featured in the early leading group, the 2006 Donington victor chose a cautious approach having narrowly avoided Toni Elias following the fellow Honda rider’s high speed crash, finishing in 9th.
Nicky Hayden’s gamble of fitting wet weather tyres to his factory Ducati failed to manifest as the 2006 champion continued his luckless season to finish a lowly 15th and last behind team mate Casey Stoner.
Colin Edwards, Monster Yamaha – 2nd
"That was a pretty intense 48 minutes but at the start there was no way I thought I was going to be on the podium. I'm not sure what happened at the start but I just had guys coming by everywhere. I was using a front tyre I'd not used all weekend and it took me a while to get a feel for it. Once I got some momentum going and I started to understand how the front tyre was feeling I started pushing my way through. But with about seven or eight laps to go I started having some big moments because it was hard to know where it was raining and where it wasn't. And all the time you're trying to figure out where there's grip and where there isn't. It was easy to mistake and the left side of the rear tyre was pretty cold and that just helped make it even more mentally draining because you need to concentrate so hard. I could see I was catching Randy really quick and we got into a good battle. He was faster than me in some parts and I was better in others but luckily I passed him on the last lap and made it stick. By that time though Andrea was too far ahead to think about pushing on for that first win, but second is a great way to finish at Donington."
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda - 9th
“First I have to congratulate Andrea on his win because he rode a great race from beginning to end in very difficult conditions. For me, the result today is obviously disappointing and the team because I have been fast all weekend and I couldn’t keep that up during the race. At the beginning I was feeling good on the Bridgestone slicks and was able to judge my pace well according to the conditions. As the rain came however, I couldn’t maintain the temperature in the tyres and when this happens the grip really goes away and I wasn’t able to control the bike as I wanted. On the grid I was sure my tyre choice was correct, but with 10 laps to go I thought that maybe I should go into the pits and change to wets, but it wasn’t worth losing 20 seconds for the bike change because the lap times of the riders on the wet tyres were the same as the times on slicks. It was a frustrating race in strange conditions, but we’ll still have confidence going into the next race in Brno because we’ve been making progress recently and I’m feeling strong on the bike.”
Nicky Hayden, Marlboro Ducati – 15th
“We took a big gamble, it backfired and it’s frustrating because we made a big change to the bike for warm-up this morning and I had a great feeling with it in the wet. The track was damp for the sighting lap and it was spitting with rain on the grid and since my pace on slicks hasn’t been great all weekend we took a big gamble. I had nothing to lose so we rolled the dice. The odds were against me but it was so close to paying off. It rained throughout the race but the track was so warm the moisture wasn’t accumulating on the ground and unfortunately that spelt disaster for us. I take full responsibility for the decision. We agreed on it together with the team but it was my shout, I thought ‘let’s try and be a hero here!’ The tyre was pretty much destroyed after seven or eight laps but there was no point coming in to pit and it came apart five laps from the end. To be honest it’s amazing how it held together for that long! I don’t want to say it was a mistake; it was just a gamble that didn’t pay off and we’ll learn from it.”
The next MotoGP round is on August 16 from Brno, Czech Republic, more news, reviews and products to view at www.whyarai.co.uk and www.phoenixnw.co.uk
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