MotoGP 2005

Australia's Ant West provided Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM with a sensational debut for its new 250cc world championship machine by finishing second in the rain-affected British Grand Prix at Donington Park today.

The 24-year-old Gold Coast rider completed the seventh round of this year's 250cc series in 49-mins 12.573-secs, finishing 1.236-secs behind race winner Randy De Puniet of France on an Aspar Aprilia. Australia's Casey Stoner, riding a LCR Aprilia, was third in the 27-lap race held in wet conditions. The leading trio had a close battle for most of the race.

West, who won the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen in 2003, started the Donington Park race 15th on the grid. He made an early charge in his first race on the works KTM and led for three laps. West was never out of the top three positions after the third lap, and clocked the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1-min 47.025-secs around the 4km track.

The result by West was his fifth top-three podium finish from 80 grand prix starts in the 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc classes since 1998. He has scored world championship points in 60 of those races.

West joined KTM in the past off-season to spearhead its assault in 250cc grand prix racing. He rode two previous rounds of this year's 250cc series at Le Mans in France and Assen on privately-entered Aprilia and Honda machines while waiting for the KTM to be race-ready.

Before the race at Donington Park, West's only previous ride on the KTM was at a two-day test at Italy's Vallelunga track on July 6-7 in dry weather. The ninth round of the 250cc world championship is the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring circuit on July 31.

ANT WEST QUOTES: "I've been trying to get a factory bike for years. KTM have given me a chance so I'm stoked to get a podium in my first race for them. I never expected this because we had engine problems in practice, and I crashed yesterday (Saturday). In the warm-up I had no rear grip, but my team completely changed the bike and it was much better in the race."

"I didn't know what to expect once the race started because everything is new and I haven't done much racing this year. The conditions were bad. There were layers of water on the track and in some places the bike was sliding when I was barely on the throttle. Despite the weather I was able go sideways into Craner Curves – it felt comfortable, which hasn't been the case on other bikes I've raced here. The KTM has a good chassis"

"It helped having the others up there to race. It means you keep concentrating because there is so much happening. We were all trying to pass each other every lap. I felt I was quicker in some places, but when I was leading I couldn't get away. When I saw 'P1' on my pit board it was a shock. I never expected to be there this weekend. On the last lap I got held up by some backmarkers and then I made a mistake and almost crashed. That's when (Randy) De Puniet to put a gap on me. The only problems I had was my visor fogging up, plus I didn't have a rain suit and my leathers kept filling up with water and getting heavy."

"My team have told me I will have some new engines and parts for the next race so we can keep improving. Tomorrow I'm driving my Motorhome to Dover for the trip to Calais (France), and then it's on to the Sachsenring. I should get to the track on Wednesday."

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