Misano
is the home track for many of the riders, and the
town of Frankie Chili...no, really, it seems like he owns
it! The atmosphere is always wonderful since so many people
always
come to watch
their heroes at work, and it being Italy, they don't keep
their feelings for the racers to themselves, especially by
the Suzuki Corona tent where it is always possible to hear
people
shouting out "MAX!". Why, even Valentino Rossi
turns up to this round!
Friday practice saw James Toseland way down
in seventh place, understandable since the Hanspree Ten Kate
Honda team had not had a chance to test on the new circuit
layout - Misano used to run in the opposite direction but has
been revised and reversed over the winter to improve safety.
There is a noticeable absence in qualifying, since Brookes
and Muggeridge
always
get a go at superpole,
but we will hopefully be seeing the Alto Evolution Honda team
back at Brno.
Superpole started off with Jakub Smrz, who
did a good lap but was immediately knocked off the top spot
by Nakatomi, who obviously went faster. Fonsi Nieto, riding
with a new paint scheme for Kawasaki, also beat Smrz's time
but Nakatomi remained on pole position until new kid on the
block Borciani beat the pole time. He had no hope of keeping
pole, with first Neukirchner
and then Roby Rolfo getting top spot, despite running
off track on one of the last corners. Regis Laconi could not
beat
Neukirchner's
time, but oh boy, our man Toseland sure could! He took and
held superpole through the efforts of Fabrizio but Nitro Nori
was
on fighting form and took pole from JT. Yukio Kagayama landed
eighth, and neither Xaus, Biaggi or Lanzi could beat the times
of Haga and Toseland, but Troy Corser soon appeared on the
scene and got the fastest time of all. Bayliss came very close
to beating Corser but the results saw Troy Corser on pole position
followed by Troy Bayliss, Nori Haga and James Toseland, second
row of the grid being Max Biaggi, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ruben Xaus
and Yukio Kagayama.
Race one saw Bayliss take the lead for the
start of the first lap, followed by Haga, Corser, Biaggi, Laconi
and Kagayama. Toseland had a bad start and ended up eighth,
shortly working up to sixth on pursuit of his ex team mate,
Regis Laconi. Lap two saw the interesting battles start to
take place, as Nori Haga and team mate Troy Corser fought for
second place while Bayliss held first. Meanwhile Toseland
was still
in pursuit of Laconi until lap four when
he overtook him into fifth place. Roby Rolfo
also had a slow start and was all the way down in tenth. It
all
ended
for
Michel
Fabrizio on lap five when he had an engine failure and therefore
had to pull out of the race. Meanwhile Troy Corser was fed
up of being behind his team mate and overtook Nori Haga into
second place. This was, however, short lived
glory as Nitro Nori said "Oi, Troy...NO" and took second place
straight back. James Toseland was having a hard time catching
up, he was going the fastest out of the top five for a long
time but there is a problem with the Honda that even Ten Kate
cannot put their finger on, and it caused the gap between Toseland
and get bigger instead of smaller. The standings remained the
same for a while, and there was lots of looking around the
bikes to see if they could overtake but things did not really
heat up until lap nine, where Nori Haga made it clear that
he was not enjoying the sight of Troy Bayliss' bottom and did
a swift overtake. Bayliss did have a look to try and get back
into first but Haga was reluctant to let him pass, could not
imagine why... At the same time Biaggi moved to take third
from Troy Corser, but
ran wide
and Corser slipped away. The same thing happened again on lap
thirteen and on lap fourteen Bayliss started to attack Haga
again. By lap fifteen Toseland was just over six seconds
behind the top four, the unknown problems with his bike really
affecting his ability to race, and Max Biaggi finally managed
to take and keep third from Troy Corser. On lap seventeen Bayliss
really started to get on Haga's case, he was not going
to let first go without a fight, and Haga had pre-prepared
his boxing gloves.
Back to Toseland, the race was going even
worse for him as Yukio Kagayama caught him up and on lap
nineteen Kagayama
took
James, causing a great sound of sympathy from all those in
the press office who had hoped that the Honda might have
got its act together and allowed James to ride to his full
ability.
On lap twenty the standings started to become clear as Troy
Bayliss re took first position from Nori Haga and held it
after a very good overtake, and Biaggi immediately joined
in the battle, which was to be his biggest downfall. I say
this because on
lap twenty-three
Biaggi, quite rightly but in this case wrongly,
took advantage of the fact that Haga left a gap for him to
go through, and dived down the inside. Well, that was the
plan, but as Haga turned in the Italian rode straight into
Haga's bike instead, causing both of them to crash out. This
was bad
for
them,
but good
for
Corser,
who was then brought up to finish in second place and even
better for Yukio Kagayama, who ended up with his first podium
finish of the season. It also, of course, allowed James Toseland
to get into fourth position. Maybe the young Brit's luck
had changed for today after all!
Race two started and, once again, Bayliss
took the lead followed by Biaggi, who was then overtaken
by
Haga. Toseland had a better start than race one, and managed
to slot in just after Corser in fifth place. On lap two Nori
Haga started another battle with Troy Bayliss, doing an extremely
quick overtake which deserved to stick, but
Bayliss got one better and immediately took him back and settled
comfortably
into first place. Corser then started on his team mate, but
Haga held second well and started very slowly to pull away
with Bayliss to try again for first. Meanwhile Toseland needed
to get past Biaggi to get into fourth place and start on Corser,
and Biaggi allowed him to do this when he ran wide and allowed
not only JT through, but Xaus as well. Kagayama almost
got through too, but Biaggi managed to get back onto the
race
line and defended his position well. On lap three Michel Fabrizio
had another engine failure and ended up, yet again, out of
the race. Not a good day in the office for DFX.
Biaggi had managed to work his way down to eighth position
by lap six, allowing Kagayama past who then went on to take
Xaus, though by lap seven Biaggi was back up to sixth.
Then on lap eight, Kagayama once again overtook James Toseland.
This problem with James' bike could turn out to be really serious
if it is stopping him from being
able to keep up with the others, I have already heard people
doubting him because of his bad luck in this round but I want
to assure all you Toseland fans out there, James is still concentrating
on his racing, and there is a problem with the Honda which
is stopping him from getting podium finishes in this round.
Lap
thirteen saw the start of the battle between Toseland and Biaggi,
when Biaggi overtook and Toseland immediately took
it back, this happened many times and was a fantastic example
of how well people can defend their positions, but Biaggi finally
took James and held his place by the end of lap fourteen. So
lap fifteen saw the standings at Bayliss, Haga, Kagayama, Corser,
Biaggi and then Toseland, and by lap sixteen Bayliss had made
a gap between himself and Haga, assuring us all that this round
was his. Meanwhile, Toseland showed us that this round was
not his when Biaggi pulled away and it became apparent that
Toseland was going to have to put up with sixth place in this
round, unless there was another incident like race one, where
some crashes brought him up a few places.
Lap twenty-one and Biaggi overtook Troy Corser and immediately
started the pursuit of his team mate, Yukio Kagayama. By
lap twenty-two Biaggi was in third place, and it stayed that
way leaving the standings at the end of the race with Bayliss,
Haga and Biaggi on the podium.
Brno next, after a few weeks break. The championship is looking
more interesting than ever, and the racing will be great as
always. Can't wait...
Race One
1 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
2 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
3 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
4 James Toseland (Honda)
5 Roberto Rolfo (Honda)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
8 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
9 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
10 Jacob Smrz (Ducati)
Race Two 1 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
2 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
3 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
4 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
5 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
6 James Toseland (Honda)
7 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
8 Roberto Rolfo (Honda)
9 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
10 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
Championship Standing
after eight rounds:
1 James Toseland 260
2Troy
Bayliss 239
3 Nori Haga 234
4 Max Biaggi 217
5 Troy Corser 182
6 Lorenzo Lanzi 133
7 Ruben
Xaus 130
8 Roby
Rolfo 109
9 Max Neukirchner 100
10 Regis Laconi 76
LB
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