"Unfortunately this game can be cruel sometimes," said the 2006 world champion, who was at least able to roll across the line in fourth. "To be so close to a really good result is tough, but we still finished, we made it across the line and still got some good points out of the deal, but it would've been nice to stand on the podium. The team certainly deserved it, they've worked really hard this weekend.

"On the sighting lap I knew something was wrong," he revealed. "It's been a little bit frustrating because she hasn't run right off the bottom since I got here, especially out of slow corners. They've been changing stuff and they thought they had it fixed but something was wrong. I had a dash light come on at the start of the race, though it went off after the start. She finally quit right before the finish line."

Reflecting on the irony of the situation, Hayden believes he and Edwards are now even.

"It's how it goes, I guess me and Colin are even now, he gave me one here a couple of years ago and I gave him a podium today," said Hayden with a wry smile. "There at the end I was trying to make a push on Dani, I wanted to keep the pressure on him, he was coming back to me a bit. I was pushing, then on the last lap I thought 'oh no, we're in trouble'.

"Nonetheless the bike is working good, now they've got a week and a half to hopefully sort it out in Japan and we can keep moving on," he concluded.

HRC technicians are now examining Hayden's RCV.

"We thought we might get both riders on the podium," confessed Repsol Honda team manager Kazuhiko Yamano . "Nicky tried so hard but he was very unlucky, we are sorry for him and we will solve this electronics problem before the next race."

But while Repsol Honda began its investigation, Tech 3 Yamaha was celebrating its second podium finish of the 2008 season.

"Colin was incredible today," enthused team manager Herve Poncharal. "I was really upset after what happened on the first lap because he has always been very fast this weekend and we were convinced with the pace he had shown that he could have challenged for the podium. This is racing but Colin was last and we thought it was over.

"When we saw his pace we had even more regret, so we were just thinking about what might have been. But he made an incredible recovery and we can't believe this podium. When I saw him come out of the chicane and pass Nicky it was an incredible emotion. His lap times were very impressive and close to Casey's, which was not easy to achieve this weekend, so I think he deserved this.

"Nobody wants to see what happened to Nicky but today it was Colin's turn to have the luck after what happened in 2006."

Edwards is still to take a MotoGP victory.