“The conditions were the reverse order of a couple of years ago, when we won here. Knowing when to come in was really a tough decision, and we probably came in a little bit too late in hindsight,” said Vermeulen after crossing the line with his best result to date in sixth place.

Vermeulen then went on to add “When you’re out there it’s difficult to know who is coming in and what tyres those on track are using. I saw Rossi come in and go back out on slicks. Then when I saw him go down I thought that it wasn’t the right thing to do. We’ve got some good points and our best result of the season, so it worked out alright.”

The desire to gain an added advantage led to many riders pondering over the possibility of starting the race on slick tyres, the timing of the sunshine though did not quite lend itself to such a risk being taken. Instead there were plenty of nervous moments as the riders went out on wets.

“There were sections that were completely dry when we started, and that was just cooking the wet tyres. Then you’d get to a corner that was soaking wet. It was a gamble, but in the end the track was more or less completely dry,” he went on to explain, then he turned his sights to the next round on the MotoGP calendar.

“Mugello is going to be a hard one for us. The Suzuki’s speed is not the quickest, that’s no secret, so the big long straight is probably going to hurt us. However, we’ve had a good result and are looking to improve upon it next time out.”