British MotoGP: Colin Edwards second after stunning fightback

Colin Edwards produced arguably his best ever MotoGP performance at Donington Park after he clawed his way from the back of the field to claim his first podium in 13 months in a thrilling British MotoGP race.

Opting to run the softer Bridgestone front tyre for the damp conditions, the 35-year-old was way off the pace in the early stages and plummeted from sixth on the grid down to 15th.

Only a pass on Chris Vermeulen on lap two and a massive crash by Toni Elias at Schwantz Curve on lap eight pushed Edwards closer to the top ten.

Shortly before the halfway stage on lap 13, the double World Superbike champion was a massive 27.561s off the lead.

But the commenced a stunning surge through the field that culminated with him passing a struggling Dani Pedrosa for third place on lap 23.

But he was still over 18 seconds behind race leader Andrea Dovizioso’s Repsol Honda RC212V at that stage, only to reel off some super fast lap times to haul himself with 1.4s of the Italian on the last lap.

Sadly his attack came too late to score his first premier class victory but he claimed his third Donington Park MotoGP podium and 11th in his career with a last corner overtake on LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet.

Edwards said: “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 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.”

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