van den Goorbergh sixth on RCV debut.

If it hadn't been for the spectacular efforts of fellow replacement rider Olivier Jacque, Jurgen van den Goorbergh's sixth would have arguably been the highlight of Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai.

The Dutchman, recruited back to the premier-class for the event to replace the injured Makoto Tamada at Konica Minolta Honda, qualified just 19th as he faced a race against time to learn the unique machine - but race day rain would allow the former 500cc pole sitter his chance to shine.

Jurgen shot up to 12th at the end of lap one, and then carved through to fifth by the start of lap 7 of 22. The former World Supersport race winner then maintained that position up until lap 15, when he was demoted by Marco Melandri.

"I'm very happy," said van den Goorbergh. "There was a lot of water and it was impossible to see who I had in front of me, but thanks to the great settings we found in warm-up I was able to pass many opponents.

"The bike had a great balance which allowed me to be fast, consistent and not wear out the tyres and after reaching fifth I felt I could aim for the podium," he added. "But in the last few laps I decided not to jeopardise all the hard work and I controlled the situation to the finish. I have to thank the team both for their welcome and their competence."

"From the beginning of the warm-up we understood that we had good opportunity to claim a good position in the race, which could have been even better if we had more time to try different types of tyres," revealed team manager Luca Montiron.

"We were aware of Jurgen's reliability and I think his sensibility and his experience made the difference with such a wet track. We all know how hard it is to pass from one category to another in just a few days like Jurgen has done, but thanks to the excellent Honda RC211V and the hard work that we have all done we have reached an unexpected result," concluded the Italian.

Depending on the condition of Tamada's wrist, van den Goorbergh could yet get a second chance to ride for the team at the French Grand Prix on May 15.