Following Honda’s first ‘FireBlade Day’ last Tuesday, when over a thousand FireBlades and four thousand people came to the Northamptonshire circuit, Vermeulen took the holeshot with his team-mate just behind. The Australian pair had both qualified on the front row of the grid.

The encounter was marred by a first lap crash along Silverstone’s start-finish straight involving five machines. None of the riders was seriously injured but the new race was reduced from 18 laps to 16.

Vermeulen, 18, led until the thirteenth lap when he ran wide at Becketts, allowing his team-mate to take up the running. By that time, however, the FireBlade-mounted duo had built up a 20-second lead over the third placed Yamaha of David Jefferies.

"The track was still drying," explained the teenager, "but I had to go wide to get past a back marker and ran onto a wet patch which let Glen go through."

Richards, 26, celebrated his first win in the series saying: "I couldn’t get past Chris all race because to do so would have meant straying off the dry line. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to risk taking us both out and just hoped he’d make a mistake."

Results (Silverstone – 2.252 miles, 16 laps):
1 Glen Richards (Honda) 23m57.364s,
2 Chris Vermeulen (Honda) +0.434s,
3 David Jefferies (Yamaha) +21.436,
4 Matt Llewellyn (Yamaha) +21.674,
5 Gary Mason (Kawasaki) +24.744,
6 Gus Scott (Yamaha) +30.317,
7 Woolsey Coulter (Aprilia) +31.725,
8 Jamie Morley (Suzuki) +32.354,
9 Jago Chapman (Yamaha) +36.918,
10 Andy Tinsley (Honda) +45.307.

Championship points after six of 12 rounds:
Llewellyn 117,
Jefferies 101,
Vermeulen 87,
Richards 76,
Rob Frost (Yamaha) 47,

Next round: Oulton Park, 16 July.