Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

Well, Shane Byrne, having struggled near the back of the pack for much of the season on the fast but fractious Aprilia, astounded everyone, including himself, by qualifying faster than Max Biaggi's record breaking qualifier last year. Quite a lot faster. It says a great deal for the progress that the sport has made over the last 12 months that, despite a fantastic result from a really sterling effort, Shakey remains 17th on the grid. Because in fact 19 riders broke last year's pole lap.

You'll not be too surprised to learn that Valentino Rossi is comfortably on pole, nearly half a second faster than Sete Gibernau. But you may be surprised to learn that third place goes to Loris Capirossi on the Ducati, with Troy Bayliss fourth, and by just five thousandths of a second, in his best starting position this year. Colin Edwards is in a strong fifth with the second row being rounded off by Nicky Hayden. Carlos Checa heads the third row, ahead of Max Biaggi and Alex Barros while top local honours go to Neil Hodgson in 14th place, about a second and a half behind. Marco Melandri, following his spectacular departure from proceedings in Germany last week, continued his investigation of gravel traps and medical centres around the world with a messy and painful exit during practice on Friday. Melandri, whose demise in the case was the result of a coming together with Alex Hoffman, broke his thumb in the crash and wisely decided against racing, citing the risk to other riders that his reduced control might cause as the overriding factor in his decision.

So race day dawned wet and horrible. Which suited the riders best used to British circuits and weather, as evidenced by Troy Bayliss who streaked around nearly a second and a half faster than second placed Sete Gibernau, while Shane Byrne was two places and half a second in front of Valentino Rossi. So it was all shaping up to be a pretty exciting race that could well make a huge difference to the championship.

Then the sun came out.

When the time came for the actual race the track was dry and the clouds, although threatening, were keeping their contents to themselves. And when the lights changed it was the old pairing of Rossi and Capirossi who made the running, with the Ducati showing a distinct edge and the Yamaha appearing to be not quite as good as Rossi might have hoped. In fact, by part of the way round the first lap, Rossi was back in fourth having been swamped by the pursuing pack. And for a while it looked as though there was a strong chance of seeing two Ducatis on the podium as both Capirossi and Bayliss put in huge efforts which appeared to be paying off. But of course that failed to take into account the prodigious talent of Valentino Rossi. By the end of the first lap he had pushed his way back past both Bayliss and Gibernau, and a few laps later he regained the lead from Capirossi who made a titanic effort but fell further back through the field as, we suspect, his tyres went off.

At that point the race deteriorated rather as Rossi extended a two lap lead which he held for the duration. A brief light shower threatened to change things, but the Italian kept his cool and didn't call for the race to be stopped. A good call, as the Yamaha is proving difficult to set up well on wet tyres and the rain faded away after a lap or so anyhow. Behind the leader, Colin Edwards seemed to suddenly remember that he can in fact ride a bike as he very neatly passed first Bayliss and then Gibernau to take and hold a well earned second place. Bayliss dropped back slightly, eventually having an almighty ruck with Nicky Hayden, which was decided in favour of the Honda rider and then confirmed when Bayliss indulged in a bit of high speed motocross beside the tarmac at Craner Curves. The popular Australian kept the bike upright to take a lonely fifth place - his best of the season and his first finish for far too long. Some way further back, Carlos Checa completed a strong ride to come home sixth, while Capirossi managed to find something left in his tyres to drag himself back up from ninth to a hard fought but well deserved seventh. Norick Abe suffered a massive highside to crash out of eighth place, again on Craner Curves, promoting John Hopkins to take his best ever result with a lacklustre Alex Barros in ninth on the works Honda. And local hero Neil Hodgson came in tenth, equalling his best result so far in MotoGP.

As for the other Brits in the race? Well Harris WCM mounted Chris Burns had another mechanical failure, pulling out on the third lap. Rumour has it that there is a new engine under development. Certainly the bike handles well enough and, while it was running, it put in quite a good showing against far more expensively produced and backed machinery. Jeremy McWilliams wrestled the Aprilia into 16th position, three behind team-mate Shane Byrne who was foiled by the improving weather. But Byrne was only three seconds behind Max Biaggi and catching him, as well as being ahead of Biaggi's Pons Honda team-mate Makoto Tamada. So not such a shabby performance, then.

As far as the championship is concerned, Rossi can at least breathe a little more easily, having built a slight buffer over joint second placed Gibernau and third (though equal on points) Biaggi. Colin Edwards, the only man other than Biaggi to score points at every round so far, is in a strong fourth place ahead of Barros and Hayden.

Results

1 V Rossi, Yamaha
2 C Edwards, Honda
3 S Gibernau, Honda
4 N Hayden, Honda
5 T Bayliss, Ducati
6 C Checa, Yamaha
7 L Capirossi, Ducati
8 J Hopkins, Suzuki
9 A Barros, Honda
10 N Hodgson, Ducati

Championship Standing after 8 rounds

164 V Rossi
142 S Gibernau
142 M Biaggi
95 C Edwards
86 A Barros
83 N Hayden
72 C Checa
64 L Capirossi
57 M Melandri
56 M Tamada