Race One
Max Neukirchner took the victory for the first race of the day, watched by an amazing 112,000 spectators as he sprinted to the chequered flag just 0.058 seconds in front of Noriyuki Haga.
It was the first time a German had ever won a World Superbike Championship (world superbike news) race, and the Alstare Suzuki rider said “It’s the first win by a German rider in World Superbike and I’m really happy about that. My team did a great job this weekend. Our engine for sure is very fast, Suzuki have done a lot of development work on it. I felt the pressure all the way through the race, but once Yukio made a little mistake, I thought ‘great! Now I can try and do it alone!”
Troy Bayliss took the final step on the podium for the Ducati Xerox team followed by Yukio Kagayama on the second Alstare Suzuki in fourth and Max Biaggi in fifth on the Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati.
In sixth place was the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Ryuichi Kiyonari ahead of Fonsi Nieto, the other Alstare Suzuki rider and the second Ten Kate Honda of Carlos Checa. Checa lost time at the beginning of the race after a tangle with Nieto which saw him at the back of the grid but he recovered well to finish in eighth place.
Here are the results for Race One;
Pos – Rider – Team – Time
1 – Max Neukirchner – Team Alstare Suzuki – 32′02.851
2 – Noriyuki Haga – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB – 32′02.909
3 – Troy Bayliss – Ducati Xerox Team – 32′03.523
4 – Yukio Kagayama – Team Suzuki Alstare – 32′03.622
5 – Max Biaggi – Sterilgarda Go Eleven – 32′06.720
6 – Ryuichi Kiyonari – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda – 32′08.846
7 – Fonsi Nieto – Team Suzuki Alstare – 32′11.639
8 – Carlos Checa – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda – 32′12.225
9 – Michel Fabrizio – Ducati Xerox Team – 32′13.518
10 – Jakub Smrz – Guandalini Racing by Grifo’s – 32′13.622
11 – Gregorio Lavilla – Ventaxia VK Honda – 32′15.031
12 – Troy Corser – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB – 32′17.570
13 – Shinichi Nakatomi – YZF Yamaha – 32′35.585
14 – Lorenzo Lanzi – R.G. Team – 32′39.401
15 – Sébastien Gimbert – Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94 – 32′39.458
16 – Russell Holland – D.F. Racing – Bertocchi – 32′55.315
17 – Luca Morelli – Alto Evolution Honda Superbike – 32′59.780
18 – Shuhei Aoyama – Alto Evolution Honda Superbike – 33′30.394
19 – Michael Beck – Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94 – 33′31.193
Not Classified
RT – Lorenzo Mauri – Spring Ducati ASD – 25′51.106
RT – Vittorio Iannuzzo – Team Pedercini – 23′52.635
RT – Ayrton Badovini – Team Pedercini – 14′30.807
RT – Ruben Xaus – Sterilgarda Go Eleven – 12′31.421
RT – Régis Laconi – Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse – 6′06.784
RT – Loic Napoleone – Grillini PBR Team – 2′28.620
RT – Karl Muggeridge – D.F. Racing -
Race Two
In race two, there was a three rider battle for that first place, with Haga just clinching it ahead of Neukirchner and Kiyonari.
Haga won by an even smaller margin of just 0.009 seconds in the final race. Both Haga and Neukirchner were behind Kiyonari who was leading as he braked for the final entry in the Parabolica.
In fourth place was the Suzuki Alstare rider, Fonsi Nieto followed by Michel Fabrizio on the Ducati Xerox and Karl Muggeridge on the DF Racing Honda.
Ruben Xaus finished in seventh place for the Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati ahead of Troy Corser in eighth on the Yamaha.
Troy Bayliss retired from race two after developing an engine problem while running in third place and Carlos Checa was another rider not to finish the race. Max Biaggi had contact with Jakub Smrz which ended his race and he also suffered a suspected fractured finger and cut a finger on the other hand.
Here are the results for Race Two;
Pos – Rider – Team – Time
1 – Noriyuki Haga – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB – 32′07.576
2 – Max Neukirchner – Team Alstare Suzuki – 32′07.585
3 – Ryuichi Kiyonari – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda – 32′07.627
4 – Fonsi Nieto – Team Suzuki Alstare – 32′12.065
5 – Michel Fabrizio – Ducati Xerox Team – 32′17.848
6 – Karl Muggeridge – D.F. Racing – 32′17.952
7 – Ruben Xaus – Sterilgarda Go Eleven – 32′18.072
8 – Troy Corser – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB – 32′20.074
9 – Ayrton Badovini – Team Pedercini – 32′27.005
10 – Gregorio Lavilla – Ventaxia VK Honda – 32′33.949
12 – Shinichi Nakatomi – YZF Yamaha – 32′34.471
13 – Russell Holland – D.F. Racing – Bertocchi – 32′35.337
14 – Sébastien Gimbert – Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94 – 32′37.237
15 – Michael Beck – Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94 – 33′36.577
16 – Shuhei Aoyama – Alto Evolution Honda Superbike – 33′24.301Not Classified
RT – Max Biaggi – Sterilgarda Go Eleven – 26′53.852
RT – Jakub Smrz – Guandalini Racing by Grifo’s – 26′54.373
RT – Carlos Checa – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda – 16′11.260
RT – Loic Napoleone – Grillini PBR Team – 28′28.363
RT – Troy Bayliss – Ducati Xerox Team – 14′40.420
RT – Régis Laconi – Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse – 10′51.853
RT – Yukio Kagayama – Team Suzuki Alstare – 7′10.852
RT – Vittorio Iannuzzo – Team Pedercini – 5′35.733
RT – Luca Morelli – Alto Evolution Honda Superbike – 2′30.556
