Autodromo di Monza, nestled in the middle of a wooded park about twenty kilometres North of Milan, is, as I'm sure you already know, the oldest purpose built racetrack still in use anywhere in the world. And it positively reeks of history. Some of the old circuit is no longer used as the ferocious banked sections are (rightly) considered way too dangerous, but it's pretty much all still here, and the relatively new current circuit uses sections of the original and passes under some of the rest. It's a fantastic circuit to visit, with a great atmosphere and plenty of places to watch from if you don't mind a bit of a walk, but its a bit of a nightmare if you're a photographer as you're pretty limited on where you can actually go. But that's not really important, at least to you.

This year things have been interesting from the off as the weather, instead of the consistent sunshine normally enjoyed here at this time of year, has been rather unpredictable. Friday was wet, and Saturday has had showers. And this of course makes it very difficult for the teams to get a useful setup on the bikes. Especially as some at least will never have been here in anything other than the traditional dazzling sunshine. Despite the threatening clouds, though, everything important was blessed with a dry track and mild breeze. Ideal drying weather, in fact.

You know how Superpole works by now. Three sessions, twenty go into the first one, sixteen into the next and eight into the last. After the first session the first row looks like Biaggi, Rea, Haslam and Camier with the second row being Toseland, Crutchlow, Corser and Fabrizio. Following up behind were Sykes, Xaus, Neukirchner, Guintoli, Scassa, Haga, Checa and Byrne with Smrz, Vermeulen, Lanzi and Baioccofailing to make the cut through to the next session. (Smrz mainly losing out because he threw his bike down the track...that’s never promising for a pole time...but he did get on his spare bike and try to improve his times so credit where it’s due.)
The second session gave some surprising results as many of the top riders didn’t get through such as Haga, Corser, Neukirchner and Camier, who also crashed at Ascari when he lost the back. Scassa, Checa, Guintoli and Byrne also dropped out leaving Crutchlow, Fabrizio, Biaggi, Toseland, Haslam, Xaus, Rea and Sykes to go through into the final session.
So the last session passed without drama, and saw the final grid as Biaggi, Crutchlow, Fabrizio and Rea as row one with Haslam, Xaus, Toseland and Sykes as row two.

Race day was slightly cooler than Saturday, but the sky was blue and the likelihood of rain seemed to have faded. Which was probably a good thing as we're currently trying to remember when it last rained here and just how little data anyone would have. Warmup, though meaningless, also passed without major excitement, leaving us set for the main event.

Race One started with Biaggi taking the lead after the first corner with Haslam dropping into second. Corser had a brilliant start and brought it up to third whilst Toseland ended up down in seventh, Camier started off tenth but soon moved up to ninth. Toseland,meantime, soon moved up the grid to chase team mate Crutchlow, resulting in him being in sixth place. Biaggi still had the lead going into the second lap followed by Haslam, Corser, Fabrizio, Crutchlow and Toseland. At this point Baiocco and Parkes were given ride throughs for cutting the first chicane in Baiocco's case and the second in Parkes'. The Australian came in and took his medicine like a man, joining in last place but giving his sponsors coverage and getting useful data, while Biaocco ignored the flags and was promptly disqualified three laps later.

Rea started to really get up to speed in the race by the third lap as he set the fastest time and started overtaking to move up to ninth position with Camier in front of him in eighth whilst at the top of the pack Haslam was sticking to Biaggi like glue, and by the fourth lap he even managed to overtake the Italian but immediately lost it again at the next corner. However, Haslam again overtook and made it stick in the fifth lap and blocked all of Biaggi’s attempts to get back past.

After a promising start, Troy Corser started slipping down the pack and went from third place to sixth place during lap five and started to battle with Fabrizio, who took sixth from him a short time later. Toseland and team mate Crutchlow started to fight for third place while Biaggi managed to slipstream Haslam on the start finish straight and blasted past with apparent ease to take first place back. To make matters worse, Toseland also started giving Haslam a hard time with Crutchlow sticking in there to pick up the pieces if it went wrong. On lap seven Crutchlow was almost successful in his quest to overtake Toseland but was out-braked coming into Prima Variante and then overtook Haslam by the end of the lap.

Momentarily concentrating on Rea again, he managed to get up to sixth by lap seven an,d by lap eight he had overtaken Fabrizio into fifth place, making the top five so close that it was really very unpredictable as to what the final results would be.  Crutchlow took Haslam’s third place away from him on lap nine, but it looked like it was to be short lived as Rea then overtook Haslam and Crutchlow. A valiant effort, but sadly as he overtook Crutchlow he lost the front and crashed out the race. (If you can find the footage of this crash it is quite amusing watching him run for his bike and then have to stop and look around for it as it had landed on the barriers!) This left Haslam back in third as Crutchlow then ran off track at Prima Variante and lost some ground in his chase after Toseland, but remained in fourth place. Camier started to work his way further up the pack by overtaking Corser to take sixth place in lap eleven, whilst on the same lap it all came to an end for number 71, Sakai on the very pretty Yoshimura Suzuki, as he highsided in Ascari and was stretchered out of the gravel to take no more part in the day's proceedings. Camier then moved up into fifth place by overtaking Fabrizio in lap twelve, whilst further up the pack Haslam had started on Toseland again and managed to overtake him at the beginning of lap thirteen going into Prima Variante. However, Toseland and Crutchlow both overtook Haslam at the same time just two bends later in the lap with Haslam almost being pushed off the track when he ran wide and found his return blocked by both Yamahs. The tussling between second and fourth place allowed Biaggi to slightly pull away into the lead. By lap fifteen Crutchlow had started on Toseland again and overtook him, and coming into Parabolica the three battling Brits were all neck and neck in a horizontal line across the track but Crutchlow managed to keep second place. That is until lap sixteen when Toseland then overtook him again going throughPprima Variante and Haslam started to lose his pace as the two Yamahas went after Biaggi. Toseland and Crutchlow remained very close for the rest of the race and caught up with Biaggi but Crutchlow was so close behind Toseland that he had to concentrate more on defending than attacking, leaving Biaggi to win the race. The top ten, then, were Biaggi, Toseland, Crutchlow, Haslam, Camier, Xaus, Fabrizio, Corser, Sykes and Guintoli.

Race Two repeated race one at first as Biaggi took the lead. However Prima Variante was disasterous when Haga clipped Toseland from behind, starting a domin effect crash that saw the Englishman going under Camier's Aprilia while his bike skittled Jonathan Rea, the Honda then itself wiping out Ruben Xaus whose BMW slid off the track on top of the helpless Ulsterman. It was all a bit unpleasant for a while as screens were erected around the unconscious Toseland for a time before he was stretchered off. (To interrupt the race report for a second, Toseland was unconscious after crashing and taken straight to hospital. The most recent report we have states that he soon woke up and was complaining of neck pain with concussion. He had a CT scan which has come out clear, but was getting another one just to be certain). Xaus displayed just what a sportsman he is as, having been taken out through no fault of his own he ignored the chance to remount and continue on his virtually undamaged BMW, electing instead to help get Rea onto a stretcher and then carry one end of it. It later transpired that Rea had no serious injuries at all, which was astonishingly lucky.

Michel Fabrizio crashed without assistance on the next lap, which left the top five for lap three as Biaggi, Corser, Haslam, Crutchlow and Sykes with Camier taking sixth, but in the next lap Camier overtook Sykes to take fifth. Haslam once again caught up with Biaggi in lap five, overtaking him into first place and making it stick but the Aprilia proved to be faster as Biaggi out dragged him on the straight going into lap six, leaving Crutchlow to also overtake Haslam. It kept going downhill for the pocket rocket as he then had a very big wobble on lap nine, which allowed Biaggi and Crutchlow to pull away from the pack and Corser to overtake him, but he took third back by the end of lap nine just to battle and lose it again on lap ten. However, by lap eleven Haslam had taken third back again going through the straight. It later transpired that Haslam's big moment has looseened a pipe and his rear tyre was being gently sprayed with coolant, giving him rather reduced grip.

It all ended for Crutchlow on lap thirteen as his bike started to have problems as some stray gravel flying up from Biaggi’s bike punched a hole in the oil cooler, leaking oil all over his back tyre and causing him to crash, happily unhurt, leaving the top five for lap fourteen as Biaggi, Haslam, Corser, Camier and Haga.

We finally saw Haga showing what he’s worth again with an interesting battle with Tom Sykes over the next few laps, as Sykes overtook him just to be overtaken back on the next corner, however Sykes out dragged Haga in lap seventeen and made it stick for the whole of the last lap, leaving the final ten as Biaggi, Haslam, Corser, Camier, Sykes, Haga, Guintoli, Smrz, Byrne and Scassa...a very unusual podium, but I guess that’s expected when the riders drop like flies. It's made the championship interesting, taht's for sure, with the gap at the top closed right up and plenty of riders in with a real shout at the title. Though the Yamaha boys didn't have a very good day...

Kyalami is next weekend, and although we won’t be there in person we will be reporting on all goings on for you...this championship is getting interesting...!

Race One

1 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
2 James Toseland (Yamaha)
3 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
4 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
5 Leon Camier (Aprilia)
6 Ruben Xaus (BMW)
7 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
8 Troy Corser (BMW)
9 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
10 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)

Race Two

1 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
2 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
3 Troy Corser (BMW)
4 Leon Camier (Aprilia)
5 Tom Sykes (Kawaaki)
6 Nori Haga (Ducati)
7 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
8 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
9 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
10 Luca Scassa (Ducati)

Championship Standing after five rounds:

1 Leon Haslam 181
2 Max Biaggi 178
3 Jonathan Rea 110
4 Carlos Checa 110
5 James Toseland 108
6 Nori Haga 100
7 Troy Corser 92
8 Leon Camier 72
9 Sylvain Guintoli 70
10 Cal Crutchlow 65

LYB