Suzuki praise Vermeulen's recovery

The Australian was an innocent victim of the collision between Olivier Jacque, Dani Pedrosa and Colin Edwards - being brought down by Pedrosa's bike while trying to drive around the crash.

Vermeulen was able to rejoin and finished 11th, setting the fastest lap along the way.

"For me the ride of the GP came from Chris Vermeulen, he had enough pace to win the race!" said Denning.

"To pick himself up and achieve such fast lap times immediately, and with a damaged bike, was just incredible.

"It just shows what a true racer he is and if everything goes his way he certainly has the ability to challenge MotoGP's established stars on a regular basis."

Vermeulen said he didn't think twice about rejoining after the incident.

"Luckily my bike was still running and lying on top of Pedrosa's," he said. "I grabbed the clutch, pulled my bike off his and rejoined the race.

"My handlebar was bent and the fairing was broken but everything else seemed to be fine. I gave it a lap or two to see if everything was okay and then just got my head down and went for it.

"I started to chase after the other guys and do some fast, consistent laps. I kept it as smooth as I could and managed to get up to 11th.

"I know I set the fastest lap near the end so who knows what might have happened if I hadn't have crashed. We now need to take this forward to China, qualify well and make sure we don't get knocked off again."