Full results here.
Wow what a race! Early drizzle gradually built up to hard rain later in the race. The grid started on slicks but switched to wets later. The gradually worsening conditions and tyre swapping lead to some extremely entertaining racing and to some very surprising performances.
Poor old Edwards, his pole position lead to nothing at all. A bad start prompted an early switch to wets, which was a gamble that didn't pay off and his race never recovered.
Rossi too suffered with tyres, he switched to a hard compound wet (as did all the Michelin shod riders) and it proved ineffective when the course got even wetter.
Loads of different riders lead the race, some of whom we've never seen up with the front runners. Rossi lead but then as conditions deteriorated, Guintoli (!) on the satellite team Yamaha took the lead with De Puniet on the Kwak right on his tail. Pootle and I cheered like crazy as they got into the top spots. Sadly it could never last, they were trying too hard. As the Le Mans sky dropped more rain on the track. Guintoli threw it down the road leaving the Kawasaki excitedly in the lead. I turned to Pootle and said "He's going to bin it now" and two corners later he did.
Vermulen won the race (Gooooo Suzuki!) and his wet weather riding looked superb, he's amazing in the wet. Melandri tried to catch him but there was no way.
Hopkins on the other Suzuki was running well but running wide on a corner later in the race cost him a good position.
Any conclusions? Michelins are losing out to Bridgestone. Both on race distance slicks and wets.