A twist of fate at Assen on Saturday saw Nicky Hayden hand a shock podium finish to Colin Edwards on the exit of the very final corner - exactly where Edwards had handed Hayden victory when he fell at the end of the 2006 event!

This year, the two riders crossed just metres from the line and after very contrasting rides.

Hayden had slotted into third, behind Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa and runaway winner Casey Stoner, for almost the entire race.

Edwards meanwhile had been forced to a standstill by Valentino Rossi's first lap accident and was only twelfth, out of 14 surviving riders, by the end of the opening lap.

"I thought I had a good start and was fifth or sixth when Valentino got tangled with Randy de Puniet and he crashed," recalled Colin. "I might have gone left but I knew Valentino was on the ground and I didn't want to run over him or his bike and I just stopped. The next thing I know is I'm dead last and then Alex de Angelis went down soon after and I lost a bit more ground.

"I just decided to get my head and push. I thought I'd rather be in the gravel than riding round for eighth or ninth. I started picking guys off and before I knew it I was on the back of the group fighting for fourth. I just kept pushing myself to go faster and the next thing I'm fourth."

The Tech 3 Yamaha reached fourth on lap 14 of 26, then set the second fastest lap of the race on lap 18 as he put up what looked like a futile attempt to catch Hayden and claim the final podium position.

"I could see Nicky and Dani in the distance and all I did was ride as hard as I could and my Tech 3 guys gave me a great bike today," continued Edwards. "Michelin had some great tyres so I started to hammer away at Nicky. I thought if I kept applying pressure he might make a mistake and if I hadn't kept pushing as hard as I did then I might not have been close enough to pounce on Nicky.

"I'd settled for fourth but as I came out of the chicane he was sat up, and I couldn't believe it," admitted the Texan. "I guess that's karma corner after 2006. This place owed me something after I crashed a couple of years ago with my first win in sight, and I'm really happy with third just because in the way I achieved it. It's hard to get on the podium at any time in MotoGP, so to do it from last is a great feeling."

It was later revealed that Hayden's RC212V had been suffering electronic problems for the entire race, causing his machine to finally run out of fuel.