NAKANO SUFFERS AS RAIN HITS PHILLIP ISLAND RACE

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano was forced to accept a hard fought eighth place in today's Australian Grand Prix, after the onset of rain on lap six forced him to relinquish a five second lead at the front of the race.

A brief rain shower as the riders lined up on the grid for today's 17-lap race caused the start to be delayed. The race was eventually started ten minutes behind schedule in dry conditions, but with the black clouds surrounding the circuit still threatening rain.

Nakano got a flying start from second place on the grid, taking the lead into the first turn and immediately pulling away from the chasing pack. Intermittent rain made conditions difficult, but the 28-year-old Kawasaki rider was in a class of his own during the opening laps.

By the time the rain had increased to the point where the white flag was shown to the riders - to indicate they could return to the pits, to change to bikes with a wet set-up - Nakano had pulled out a five second gap on second placed Sete Gibernau.

As the rain continued to fall steadily, the majority of the MotoGP riders returned to the pits at the end of lap eight, for a somewhat chaotic switch to their spare machines, leaving Nakano virtually alone on track, as he continued to push hard in the tricky conditions.

One lap later and Nakano also pitted to change to his second Ninja ZX-RR, but despite rejoining the race in second place, the Kawasaki pilot was quickly demoted to sixth, as he tried to get a feel for the full wet tyres fitted front and rear.

Nakano continued to push hard as the track dried out, using up his wet tyres in the process, with the result that he was unable to counter moves by Nicky Hayden and Loris Capirossi at the end of the race, forcing him to settle for eighth place at the line.

Randy de Puniet was pushing hard to make up places from eleventh position when he came into pits with a large group of riders to switch bikes, rejoining the race in the same position, after narrowly avoiding a collision with Makoto Tamada in the busy Phillip Island pit lane.

The 25-year-old Frenchman quickly settled into a good rhythm, moving up the order to take tenth place, before losing time as a build up of dirt on his visor considerably reduced his visibility.

De Puniet fought hard to hold off Makoto Tamada on the final lap, but lost out on a top ten finish as the Japanese rider out-dragged him to the chequered flag, leaving the Kawasaki pilot to cross the line in eleventh place.