Valentino Rossi won yet again in Estoril

You could not tell what you were going to meet round the corner, especially with three or four bikes in front of you.

My teammate, Nobuatsu Aoki's bike stopped on the straight due to taking on too much water so I suppose I was lucky.

Nevertheless, those are the worst conditions I have raced in for a long time.

It was really horrendous but you just have to get on with it although it is not much fun racing in that kind of weather.

After remounting, I was cursing myself for having made the mistake and I had to set about clawing my way back up the field.

A few other riders crashed as well and that left me in ninth at the finish.

I was not happy with the race tyre set-up on the day as the rear was sliding all over the place and had deteriorated badly by lap 13.

Although I was fastest in the morning warm-up, I knew that I did not have a tyre to go the whole race distance.

In contrast to the race, qualifying was as good as it gets as I started from the second row despite giving away a lot of horsepower.

Three-second lead

My time would have taken pole position at last year's race and was better than we were hoping for.

I felt sorry for Sete Gibernau even though he is a rider I do not get on with particularly well.

He led for most of the race and built up a three-second lead before falling off when he should really have won.

Valentino Rossi was gifted the win and while all the riders in the paddock like him, it would be nice to see someone else step onto the top podium.

My plans for next year are not finalised yet but I have been offered a good World Superbike deal.

I may also stay in the MotoGP series if I get things sorted out but I have not yet been offered the two-year deal I want from the Proton team.