Andrea Dovizioso promised to keep trying to get closer to Honda teammate Casey Stoner after his strongest race performance of the year so far at Silverstone.
The Italian has been overshadowed by stablemates Stoner and the currently-injured Dani Pedrosa since Honda expanded to a three-bike works lineup this year, but in Britain he was able to lead in the wet and finish second, albeit 15 seconds behind Stoner.
Dovizioso had charged from fifth to first on the opening lap, and though Stoner got ahead, he was able to resist pressure from Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli until both crashed out.
"I knew the race could be like this so I tried to start as fast as I can, because I knew Stoner was really good," said Dovizioso. "I tried to follow him, but especially I wanted to stay in front of the other riders because the conditions were very over the limit. There were very wet parts and it was easy to lose control of the bike. I'm really happy about my strategy.
"I'm really happy about my second position and the podium because it's very difficult for me to be fast like them in the practice, but we never give up."