At first it was just spits and spots of rain on my visor. It lasted for a couple of laps and I thought it would pass. It was still almost dry on the first part of the circuit up through the start and finish but as I came down to the back end of the circuit it started to pour with rain.
I was thinking this is not the best situation to be in but I've got to keep pushing on at the front. Despite slowing as much as I could, I went down at the Mandeveen corner with the slick tyres unable to cope with the wet track. The chance of that first grand prix victory had gone. Deep inside I'm still gutted that the rain came when I had over a three second lead in the Dutch TT but as always we are looking at the many positives that came out of our weekend in Holland.
As often happens when the rain comes in the middle of the race the first faller is the guinea pig for Race Direction and the red flag came out immediately to stop the race. I was lucky that I was able to ride the bike back to the pits and could start the second race because the grid positions are determined from the positions of the riders on the lap before the red flag was shown.
I was in pole for the re-scheduled race which was reduced to just five laps and made another great start but I was wary thinking the track could still be a little damp. At the end of the first lap I down in eighth place but on the second lap I realised the track was as dry as it was in the first race and my pace was as fast as it was before the rain. The problem was ten riders were battling for the lead and it was mayhem out there.
At the last chicane on the last lap I tried to ride the outside of everybody because the others were riding defensively on the inside of the bend. I was off the racing line and it was damp and I dared not open the throttle too quickly because I would have gone down. At the flag I was fifth and picked up 11 precious world championship points. I really enjoyed the race and I bet it was fantastic to watch.
