Five Fours Make Podium – Bayliss' Duke Goes Bang...

Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) shared the wins in the IDS Italian Round of the HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in front of a record crowd of 112,000 spectators.

Race 1: The first-ever win for a German rider in World Superbike history came at the end of a sprint finish to the line with Haga, just 0.058 seconds behind at the flag. The final podium place went to championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) after a late attack by Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare), who finished fourth despite a couple of errors at the chicane.

Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati) recovered from ninth on the grid to finish fifth. The first Honda to the line was the Hannspree Ten Kate version of Ryuichi Kiyonari in sixth, ahead of Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki Alstare) and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), who lost time at the start after a clash with Nieto. The Spanish rider was relegated to the back of the field but recovered to finish eighth.

Max Neukirchner, winner of race one: “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!”

Race 2: Haga took the win over Neukirchner in the second race, which saw a three-rider sprint for the line. This time the gap between the two was even smaller, 0.009 seconds, the fifth closest finish in the history of Superbike. But today’s two winners were almost edged out at the end by an extraordinary Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) who was in front as they braked for the final entry into the Parabolica.

Fourth place went to Nieto (Suzuki Alstare), who was also up at the front for much of the race. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) brought the first Ducati home in fifth place after a good recovery, ahead of Karl Muggeridge (DF Racing Honda) and Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati).

An engine problem brought an end to the race of Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) while the Australian was lying third. Both Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati) retired, the Italian after a contact with Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Ducati), in which he picked up a suspected fractured little finger and a cut on the ring finger of his left hand.

Noriyuki Haga, winner of race two: “Actually I couldn’t change anything for the engine but I just made a few changes to the suspension and that was better than the first race for the feeling. On that last lap I was thinking about what I had to do to win, my head was totally blank but I arrived at the line and couldn’t believe the gap, 0.009 seconds. Monza is special for me, here is our home track and I have been thinking for all last week that I must win. During the weekend I couldn’t find the right feeling but yesterday my engineer and suspension engineer made a good combination and I was able to enjoy the riding.”

SBK Championship Standings