A standing wheelie at 150mph in the rain was Casey Stoner's way of celebrating victory in the British Grand Prix. His fourth win in six races took the 2007 world champion to the top of this season's standings, and came at the end of a race in which, after taking the lead on the second lap, he rode his Repsol Honda smoothly away from his rivals, with his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso finishing second, 15 seconds in arrears.
The 25-year-old Australian is not much liked by the British public, who took against him when he ended the hugely popular Valentino Rossi's run of five consecutive championships, and yesterday's standing ovations were reserved for other finishers. One was Colin Edwards, who rode his Tech 3 Yamaha into third place despite having had a metal plate inserted to repair a broken collarbone in Barcelona nine days earlier. The occupants of the main grandstand, opposite the circuit's lavish new pits, also rose to greet Rossi, who could finish no better than sixth on his unhelpful Ducati, almost half a minute behind Stoner.
A typical Silverstone day kept the crowd down, as did the absence of Cal Crutchlow, Britain's only current MotoGP contender. The Tech 3 rookie mirrored his team-mate's misfortune by breaking his own collarbone with a fall during Saturday's qualifying session, and had to follow the race from hospital, where he was due to have an operation on Sunday.
Edwards, a 37-year-old Texan, produced not just the most heroic drive of a demanding day but also the best quotes, some of which were printable in a family newspaper. The chief pain, he said, had been caused not by the repaired collarbone but by another injury from the same accident, in which a muscle was separated from his ribs.
"That's what was really hurting," he said. "I can't eat, I can't drink, I can't shit, I can't do anything without pain." Including, obviously, riding an 800cc motorbike around Silverstone for three-quarters of an hour at an average speed of more than 90mph, trying to stop the machine's front end from breaking away as it aquaplaned across the puddles and rivulets that turned the asphalt into a ribbon of hidden dangers.
The standing water caught out three of the top contenders. Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies, on the works Yamahas, were occupying second and fifth places respectively when they crashed out of the race within seconds of each other, the American at the end of lap seven and the Spaniard at the end of the new pit straight as he was starting lap eight. Marco Simoncelli, the volatile young Italian, started from the middle of the front row and was attacking Dovizioso for second place at the beginning of the 11th lap when he lost his San Carlo Honda a few yards from the place where Lorenzo had come to grief.
Stoner had made an indifferent start, possibly as a result of deciding not to follow the example of his rivals, who put temperature into their tyres before the start by undertaking an extra warm-up lap. Slow off the line, the Australian was beaten away by Lorenzo and Dovizioso, but had secured the lead by the time they came past the pits for the second time.
"I got a lot of spray off Jorge and Andrea on the first lap," he said, "and some of the water got under my visor, which made it difficult to see very much." Once past them, he was able to extend his lead while remaining alert, as the track became increasingly treacherous. "The puddles were getting deeper and we were aquaplaning more," he said. "But the cold was the worst thing. It was so cold that my body wasn't working properly."
Fans who had looked forward to cheering Crutchlow were given ample consolation in the supporting Moto2 race in which Bradley Smith, the 20-year-old Oxford rider, made his way from 28th place on the grid to finish second, 7.6sec behind the winner, Stefan Bradl of Germany. A graduate of Spain's MotoGP academy, Smith was racing in the 125cc grand prix category at the age of 15, winning three races before making the step up to the 600cc division this year.
His first podium finish in Moto2 was a rich reward at the end of a difficult weekend. Fined €200 for marginally exceeding the pit-lane speed limit during the practice sessions, he was hit with a further penalty of €1,000 for turning round at the end of pits after spotting a problem on the bike and deciding not to complete a full lap before returning to his garage.
The tricky conditions on race day enabled him to demonstrate his skill at a time when those ahead of him on the grid were adopting a more circumspect approach. Sixteenth at the end of the opening lap, he was fifth by the end of lap five.
Three laps later he was battling for third place with his 18-year-old compatriot Scott Redding, who had started from the front row and took a lead which he held until the eventual winner slipped past him on the inside of Copse Corner. Having disposed of Redding, Smith inherited second place from Kenan Sofuoglu, the Turkish rider who slid off the track with six of the 18 laps remaining.
"The rain helped me out," Smith said afterwards. But his courage and opportunism had given the home crowd a memory to cherish.
Stoner after the 2010 Qatar MotoGP
 has won the 2011 British MotoGP placing him at the top of the championship table. The Australian rider started in pole position and finished 15.159 seconds ahead of second place . American  claimed third place despite riding with a broken collarbone.

The win at  gives Stoner his forth win of the season and places him ahead of previous championship leader , who crashed out during the race.  and  also failed to finish the race after suffering crashes. The race was affected by bad driving conditions due to heavy rain but a large crowd still attended despite no British riders taking part in the MotoGP.

Speaking to the BBC after his victory Stoner said "At the beginning we didn't get a great start. But the bike felt good, and I waited for the tyres to get up to temperature. In the first lap I had water in my visor, so for the first five or six laps I couldn't really see properly. I couldn't see any puddles. But finally the water went away and I was able to do the lap times I wanted, and open up a gap."

German riders  and  won the Moto2 and 125cc classification races.