Donington Park is about as far from the sea as you can get i the United Kingdom. But that doesn't matter as we shoot past the summer solstice and enter the second part of the year. Because on midsummer's day the skies were resolutely leaden and grey. And it rained.

But no problem - it rained in practice and qualifying, too, though not consistently. Now a number of people have made themselves a reputation for going well in the wet, in the same way that a number of others have become renowned for not going very well at all. So the practice timesheets made for interesting reading, as some unexpected visitors came to have a look at the top of the table. The first, sadly unusual, visitor was current world champion Nicky Hayden. The Kentucky rider has so far totally failed to gel with the 800cc Honda and has been consistently out ridden, out qualified and out psyched by his diminutive Spanish team-mate, as well as most of the satellite team riders. The next was Dani Pedrosa, a regular visitor to the top but not in the rain, while Anthony West, newly drafted in to the Kawasaki team from the Supersport championship, staggered everyone with a fifth place in the second session. Colin Edwards popped up to say Hallo, the popular Texan seeming to have finally found something that enabled him to capitalise on at least some of his enormous talent. Valentino Rossi, meanwhile, had a torrid time with a couple of crashes and lots of lurid slides keeping him way down the table both in the dry and wet sessions. Chris Vermeulen shone in the rain, as you might expect, and his team-mate John Hopkins did pretty well too, despite some really atrocious conditions.

Qualifying surprised everyone by turning out to be dry. Colin Edwards also surprised everyone by going fastest through the session, beating team-mate Valentino Rossi to pole by just over a tenth of a second. The front row was capped off by Dani Pedrosa, who won here last year and who, this time, pushed his finally on form team-mate Nicky Hayden onto the second row by just under a fifth of a second. Hayden was joined on the second row by Casey Stoner and John Hopkins, these two split by just over a hundredth of a second. Row three saw Carlos Checa, Randy de Puniet and Marco Melandri line up ahead of Toni Elias, who rounded off the top ten. Vermeulen, despite having headed the timesheets at times, qualified twelfth, just ahead of Loris Capirossi, while new boy West made it into seventeenth.

British weather is the staple conversation piece of the British public for a reason. And that reason is the frequency with which it does things worthy of comment. Like being cold, wet and windy on what should be the ultimate summer's day, for example. And so, as the riders lined up for the start on Sunday, 24th June, it was distinctly soggy underfoot, though there were some signs of a lightening sky.

Lights out and Dani Pedrosa took advantage of his superior power to weight ratio to absolutely fly into the lead, Rossi getting an appalling start and dropping back to eighth. Colin Edwards made the best of his position to slot into second breathing down Pedrosa's collar, while behind a huge gaggle had riders changing places so often that it was hard to keep track. Everyone got away cleanly, anyway, and at the end of the first lap it was Pedrosa from Edwards. Rossi had recovered from his dire start and dragged his way back up to third, ahead of Hopper while Chris Vermeulen was in a staggering fifth from his twelfth place start, ahead of outgoing champion Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner. Anthony West was proving to be a wise investment by the Kawasaki team, too, as by the end of lap one he had slid through to ninth and was pushing hard. Up at the front, Edwards was riding like a hero and pushing Pedrosa hard while Rossi appeared to be having all sorts of problems and dropped back to eighth again on lap four. Nicky Hayden was on a roll, riding brilliantly to get as high as fourth by lap three before throwing the Honda into the gravel on lap five. He managed to rejoin, pitting in and coming back out o his spare bike but he rode like a pale shadow of his former self and ended up a distant last, four whole laps down on the leaders.

Anthony West, meantime, made it all the way up the field to fifth, passing Valentino Rossi in the process, before taking to the gravel. He so nearly saved it but was forced to lay the bike down before reaching the barrier to minimise damage and injury. Keeping it running, the Australian rookie remounted and got back into the race, making the best he could ad eventually finishing in a highly respectable eleventh place.

Five laps in, Colin Edwards made a hugely popular move to the front of the field and immediately started to gap Pedrosa, whose brilliant start seemed to perhaps be masking a less than totally satisfactory race pace. Indeed, Pedrosa shot backwards through the field at a fair pace dropping to fifth in a single lap and continuing to maintain a pace far slower than the leaders. With a field as spread out as it became, Pedrosa was lucky to gain a top ten finish which, with another couple of laps, would surely have been denied him. Behind Edwards, though, Casey Stoner had made his move. Or moves, rather, as through a combination of assertive passes and Ducati grunt the young Australian had carved his way up the pack and settled into a comfortable rhythm behind the leader. John Hopkins spent the next six laps eyeing up the last podium spot, with his team-mate Vermeulen riding shotgun but behind him Valentino Rossi was on the move having settled into his race pace. It took him until lap eleven, but The Doctor closed Hopper down and finally displaced him from third. A massive slide which saw Rossi on the grass and very nearly on his bum allowed Hopper to get past again but only for a short time, normal service being resumed just under a lap later. Vermeulen sipped by Hopper a little later as the track started to dry and tyres began to go off.

Yes, fickle British weather decided that the rain should stop just around the time that it was too late to come in and change to different tyres. It would cost around forty seconds to swap bikes and get back up to speed, even with the short Donington pitlane, and the benefit wouldn't be enough to make up that time over the number of laps remaining. So those super soft wet tyres started to overheat, chunk up and fall apart. There is little less pleasant than riding on wets in the dry - to me it always felt like the bike had a puncture ad the tyre was moving on the rim - so the pace that the front runners were maintaining was truly amazing. Colin Edwards was riding like the great talent we know he is when he ran deep at the Foggy Esses and again at the Melbourne Hairpin. The first allowed Stoner to close right up, the second allowed the championship leader to slip inside and into the lead. Bridgestone wets seem to handle the abuse better than Michelin ones do, because a little way back Chris Vermeulen on the Bridgestone shod Suzuki put a move on Michelin riding Valentino Rossi, made it stick and steadily pulled away.

And that, in all honesty, was that. Stoner rode like the prodigy he is, keeping the Ducati steady and smooth and turning in fastest laps at a point where he should have been wrestling to keep it on the black stuff. Colin Edwards dug into his reserves of talent to stay in a comfortable and richly deserved second place and Chris Vermeulen extended a gap on Rossi to take third. Rossi himself, riding a bike with both tyres completely shot, managed to retain fourth ahead of a resurgent John Hopkins, while Randy de Puniet rode the Kawasaki to a well deserved sixth, fending off the attentions of Alex Barros on the way. Loris Capirossi had got the better of all three of these and was chasing Rossi when he pushed just a little too hard on his ruined tyres and threw the Ducati at the fence entering Coppice. Though he was unhurt, the same could not be said for his bike, which dug into the gravel and somersaulted several times, coming to rest in pieces, so the deservedly popular Italian's race was over.

Dani Pedrosa succumbed to Barros' pressure on the last lap, managing to remain just in front of Alex Hofmann while Marco melandri completed the top ten.

It wasn't really a classic race - the weather meant that there was little real racing or edge of the seat action - but at least next week's race, at Assen, will see the Yamaha team arrive with some much needed positive experiences behind them and a more confident outlook. Last year Colin Edwards so nearly won at Assen, perhaps this will be the turning point in the championship both the for Texan and for the Yamaha team. But as it stands, it looks as though Ducati and Casey Stoner are going to walk away with the spoils. While that's good news generally - a tiny Italian factory taking on and beating the might of the Japanese - a walkover does rather spoil the excitement for the rest of us. I guess we'll have to see what the second half of the season has to offer. And we're not even halfway through yet...

British MotoGP Results

1. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
2. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
3. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
4. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
5. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
6. Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki)
7. Alex Barros (Ducati)
8. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
9. Alex Hofmann (Ducati)
10. Marco Melandri (Honda)

MotoGP standings (after eight rounds)

1. Casey Stoner 165
2. Valentino Rossi 139
3. Daniel Pedrosa 106
4. Chris Vermeulen 88
5. John Hopkins 83
6. Marco Melandri 81
7. Colin Edwards 65
8. Alex Barros 60
9. Loris Capirossi 57
10. Toni Elias 49

SB