Silverstone is rightly known as the home of British motorsport. look around the place and you'll see why - pretty well anyone who is anyone in the world of top end international motorsport on 2 or 4 wheels is based within a twenty mile or so radius. It's a fabulous circuit, though critics (and that has included me on occasions) suggest that it's a little featureless and rather easy to get lost on. It's certainly fast and wide, though. The surface is excellent, facilities are first class and the infrastructure is there to get in and out relatively easily. It fell out of favour for a while, with Donington becoming the circuit of choice for bike events at least, but things have changed and now Silverstone is back and firmly established on the calendar. With its new stadium section and improved layout overall, that's definitely a Good Thing as it has becomes one of the best circuits on the calendar.

Now here in the UK we've enjoyed the warmest, driest Spring since records began. Early summer, too, passed with nary a rain cloud, to the extent that as I write this parts of Britain are officially in a state of drought. Of course, that couldn't last, and clearly fate and Mother Nature were working together to have a bit of a laugh as the two largest sporting events in the country so far this year both ended up being a total washout. But I'm getting ahead of myself. As usual.

Practice was completely dominated by Casey Stoner. It's getting a little tedious writing that, though it is a measure of the man's considerable talent that on his first season on the Honda he really is increasingly showing that he's in a class of his own. It may make for slightly dull racing but my word the boy can ride. Marco Simoncelli spent all three free practice sessions in second place, while Lorenzo, Hayden and Spies took turns in third. Cal Crutchlow did an herculean job in getting the Tech3 Yamaha to fourth in the wet second practice session, showing great potential for race day, which was already forecast to have rain showers at the very least. Dani Pedrosa is still hors de combat with his broken collarbone, though Colin Edwards, who broke his collarbone and also separated a couple of ribs just last week was back on the bike and giving it his all. Throughout free practice conditions were variable at best and treacherous at worst. The track temperature was low enough to compromise grip in the dry, while the partly resurfaced track allowed water to pool in places in the rain, making it equally nasty. Just for good measure, as the track dried during the second session we found ourselves with rain falling on one part of the circuit while the other was almost dry and rapidly chewing up those soft wet tyres. Now you may have noticed that I've not mentioned Valentino Rossi yet. Truth is, The Doctor was having a pretty torrid time. Having never ridden on this circuit on a MotoGP bike because he was injured last year, Rossi was starting on the back foot already. And that wasn't helped by the fact that, frankly, the Ducati still doesn't really work for him. No, he was definitely not a happy camper by the end of practice.

And it got worse. Qualifying was pretty horrible for Rossi. A man who is used to being up at the sharp end, qualifying persistently in the lower half of the grid isn't going to be doing him any good. Even though nobody has, or is likely to, come close to his tally of wins, championships and general adoration among fans and general public alike. Rossi could take comfort in the fact that qualifying went worse for at least one rider. After running as high as second in two practice sessions, hopes were high for Cal Crutchlow delivering us something special at what is essentially his local track. Unfortunately, what he actually delivered was a massive highside early in the session. The only Brit in MotoGP ended up in Clinica Mobile before being transferred to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with a collarbone broken in two places. The bigger concern is a possible neck injury. As I write we're awaiting the results of an MRI scan to see what the damage is.

On a more positive note, Casey Stoner kept his clean sweep going, taking pole back from Simoncelli during the last knockings of the session. Jorge Lorenzo closed off the front row, just under three hundredths of a second behind Simoncelli. Ben Spies headed row two from Andrea Dovizioso, with Karel Abraham in sixth. Not sure who was more surprised, him or us, but the lad rode an inspired session and deserved the spot. Row three Had Nicky Hayden in front of Colin Edwards and Alvaro Bautista, while Randy de Puniet, Hiroshi Aoyama and Hector Barbera lined up behind.

Warmup was wet. At least it was consistent. Wet everywhere, except for the deeper parts where it was really very wet indeed. Casey Stoner ran at the front, ahead of Lorenzo and Simoncelli. the only faint surprise was that Rossi was up in eighth. Had they found something to make the Ducati work properly? Maybe not, because Rossi crashed out shortly after setting his best time, joining de Puniet, who had crashed on the same corner a couple of laps earlier. No injuries, but a telling indicator of how hard the Italian maestro is having to work.

So lining up for the race, the rain was still falling and had been doing so persistently all day. There were seriously deep puddles in places - almost rivers in fact. Silverstone's tarmac is very smooth and lovely to ride, but as a result it doesn't drain very well. It's also quite gentle on tyres, which is great but you really want an abrasive surface when there's that much water standing on it.

Lights out and Jorge Lorenzo made the break while Dovizioso made a storming start to take second, slotting in neatly ahead of Stoner. Toni Elias did better still, coming up to assault the front from way down the field before running massively wide on the first corner and using the escape area to get around, running over the kerbs but not actually going off the track. Brave man - I'd not want to touch the kerbs in that sort of rain. Simoncelli made a fair start, slotting into fourth behind Stoner and biding his time.

Astonishingly, nobody fell off on the first lap, though there were plenty of pretty lurid slides and twitches. Lorenzo in front was clearly feeling the pressure as he ran wide at the end of the first lap, allowing first Dovizioso and then Stoner to pass, closely followed by his nemesis Simoncelli. Not a good first lap for the world champion. Karel Abraham didn't make such a great start, slipping back to tenth, while Spies, Hayden and Edwards all capitalised on their experience (or plain raw talent in Spies' case) to consolidate their positions at the back of the leading pack.

Now when it's this wet things can sometimes be a little processional as the riders pick their way around rather carefully. Not this time, though. Casey Stoner clearly didn't want to be behind Dovizioso, and he made a very clean pass early in lap two to take the lead. Which he then gradually extended in what can only be described as a masterclass of wet weather riding. While everyone else on the track was enjoying varying degrees of mayhem and seemingly testing their traction control to the max, Stoner serenely rode the same line, lap after lap. Behind Dovizioso, Simoncelli was riding a storm, closing right up with the factory Honda rider before having an enormous slide under braking which, frankly, there was no way he could catch. The fact that he not only kept it upright but only lost one place as he ran straight on and across the grass is a true testimony to his skill. But now he was back behind Lorenzo, who wasn't about to make it easy for him.

That, as it happened, was academic. Because on lap nine the Mallorcan crashed out of a safe third place, highsiding the Yamaha into a mess of tangled wreckage. Worse still for Yamaha, Ben Spies had done much the same just a few seconds earlier to take both factory Yamahas out of contention.

Simoncelli was on for third, then. But that too all went wrong. The guy is a racer, and if he sees an opportunity then he'll take it. Rightly so, too. He was clearly faster than Dovizioso, and had reeled him in but couldn't quite get past. He is, after all, a big lad and the factory Honda is at least as fast as the Gresini machine. So he needed to push a little harder. He was doing exactly that when, braking at the end of the main straight, the front folded and dumped him on his ear without any hope at all of catching it this time. The beauty of crashing on the brakes in the wet is that, usually at least, the rider is going slowly enough not to be hurt. So it was in this case - Ben Spies was knocked about and went for a checkup but everyone ended up with a clean bill of health which is good news.

And so it was that Colin Edwards put the sole remaining Yamaha on the podium. That's the first podium champagne Colin has tasted since the British GP in 2009, at Donington. When it was also raining. A long way ahead, Casey Stoner cruised home having lapped Randy de Puniet and Hector Barbera, both of whom were extremely polite about the whole thing, despite being in their own personal tussle. Dovizioso came in a same second, while Nicky Hayden brought to Ducati home fourth. For a while it looked as though we might have a race on our hands as he was closing on Edwards, but the Texan responded and kept the gap at a safe but rather unexciting three seconds. Behind Hayden, Alvaro Bautista came home in his joint best ever position, while Valentino Rossi had a miserable race and will be happy to have salvaged ten points for a lonely and rather half hearted sixth.

On paper it looks as though this was a boring race, with positions static and little real action. Yet I was on the edge of my seat. It wasn't fast and furious, but my word the skills on display, even by those who ended up eating the gravel traps, were astounding to see.

We're in Assen for the Dutch TT in a fortnight. Remember race day is Saturday 25th, not the Sunday. Hopefully Cal Crutchlow will be back, albeit a little sore (we've had confirmation that his neck is OK and he's off for surgery as I write), Dani pedrosa will also be back and perhaps even the Ducatis will work properly to have the decent ding-dong battle we've been waiting for all season...

Result

1 Casey Stoner (Honda)
2 Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
3 Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
4 Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
5 Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)
6 Valentino Rossi (Ducati)
7 Karel Abraham (Ducati)
8 Toni Elias (Honda)
9 Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda)
10 Loris Capirossi (Ducati)

Championship Standing after six rounds:

1 Casey Stoner 116
2 Jorge Lorenzo 98
3 Andrea Dovizioso 83
4 Valentino Rossi 68
5 Dani Pedrosa 61
6 Nicky Hayden 60
7 Hiroshi Aoyama 43
8 Colin Edwards 37
9 Ben Spies 36
10 Karel Abraham 33

SB

PS And our special congratulations to Moto2's Bradley Smith, who rode a spectacular race to come in second from twenty-eighth on the grid.