Casey Stoner took his fourth victory of the season at a cold and wet Silverstone, in a race that saw
Jorge Lorenzo crash out of the title lead and
Colin Edwards claim a podium just nine days after breaking his collarbone!
Fastest in every track session - in both wet and dry conditions - Stoner lost out to Lorenzo and Repsol Honda team-mate
Andrea Dovizioso at the start, but both he and Dovizioso retook the Yamaha rider within a few corners.
After a handful of laps to test the conditions, Stoner seized the lead from Dovizioso on lap 2 of 20, then began pulling away - despite some vision problems - while Lorenzo remained trapped behind Dovizioso.
The sense of urgency got the better of the Yamaha rider on lap 9 of 20, when the world champion highsided off at the fast first turn, marking his first DNF since Australia 2009.
The accident came just moments after team-mate Ben Spies had crashed out of sixth and promoted Marco Simoncelli to third and a potential first
MotoGP podium. Sadly for the all-action San Carlo Honda Gresini rider, he once again threw a rostrum chance away when he fell at the same corner as Lorenzo on lap 11.
Simoncelli's third DNF of the year put
Colin Edwards into a popular third, just over a week after breaking, then undergoing surgery, on his collarbone - and one day after Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Cal Crutchlow suffered the same injury.
A sore Edwards began the race eighth on the grid, and showed no sign of weakness as he caught and passed Spies for fifth place, before the two accidents ahead of him.
Edwards responded to pressure from countryman
Nicky Hayden in the closing stages, allowing the former double World Superbike champion to claim the podium he lost after a technical problem on the last lap of round two at Jerez.
That had also been the race in which Stoner lost the title lead to Lorenzo, after being collected by Valentino Rossi.
The 2007 world champion returned to the head of the standings by 18 points after a huge 15.159sec victory - his 27th in the premier-class - over Dovizioso, with Edwards a further 6.321sec behind at the line.