De Puniet wins wet 250 thriller - KTM second!

The 250cc British Grand Prix proved a thrillingly chaotic affair, with several riders falling by the wayside before a four-way battle for victory ensued between Hiroshi Aoyama, Randy de Puniet, Casey Stoner and Anthony West, riding the quarter-litre KTM machine on its race debut.

When runaway race leader Aoyama crashed out with fifteen laps remaining it was left to the other three to do battle in a race decided on the final lap, when Stoner ran straight into turn one and West had a major slide in Craner Curves to hand victory to De Puniet - who had himself survived a massive scare when he was forced to cut across the grass at the craner curves after a saved highside, several laps earlier.

Meanwhile, Dani Pedrosa came home in fourth place to maintain his championship lead over Stoner, which now has now been reduced to 34-points after the Australian returned to the track to take third place behind his compatriot West.

250cc top ten - British GP:

1. De Puniet (Aprilia)
2. West (KTM) +1.236secs
3. Stoner (Aprilia) +16.740secs
4. Pedrosa (Honda) +47.825secs
5. Porto (Aprilia) +1min 3.44secs
6. Corsi (Aprilia) +1min 32.43secs
7. Dovizioso (Honda) +1min 34.56secs
8. Lorenzo (Honda) +1min 45.96secs
9. Guintoli (Aprilia) +1 lap
10. Ballerini (Aprilia) +1 lap

Davies (Aprilia) DNF