Valencia. A fabulous city, where ancient and modern rub shoulders with effortless ease, where pavement cafes and faceless office blocks nestle next to Crusader-age churches and ultra modern art galleries. Where the best oranges in Europe are stupidly cheap and get used for all sorts of things (including a ferocious local liqueur) and where a surprisingly small area just outside town houses the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Yes, I got to it eventually. The circuit is the type of thing you might have built if you had lots of Scalextric and a small room to house it in. There are lots of reverses, lots of tight turns and intricate shapes and very few opportunities for rest on a lap. It's fast in places, and there are a few elevation changes to make the walk around a little more challenging, but overall speeds are relatively slow compared to the massive workload the riders experience. It's also blessed with violently changeable conditions that cause grip to be somewhat unpredictable at times. It's a circuit that divides opinions, with some riders loving it and some truly detesting the place. And traditionally it's a circuit that favours anything other than fire breathing four cylinder bikes, agility and side grip being more important than brute power for the vast majority of the four kilometre lap.

And this was borne out in the first qualifying session, with six of the first ten places being Ducatis and another two being the fast but agile and flexible vee four Aprilias. Technically, in fact, Crutchlow's crossplane crank Yamaha works like a vee engine as well, so only Haslam's fifth placed Suzuki was a true across the frame four.

Carlos Checa staked an early claim to the top step, dominating through free practice and qualifying on the privateer Ducati with Shakey Byrne in third behind Jakub Smrz and followed by Biaggi in session one. Biaggi managed to pip the local rider to the top step in the second session, with Smrz and Byrne third and fourth while Haslam again came in fifth and with a good understanding of how much work he was going to have to do.

But as we've often said, there's a whole world of difference between regular qualifying and Superpole. There's a huge amount of pressure on the twenty riders who qualify for that short time where often, although there are several laps available it's just one shot at a good one. So the first session saw the departure of Sheridan Morais on the CRS Honda, Andrew Pitt on the privateer Reitwagen BMW, Tom Sykes on the Kawasaki and Ruben Xaus on the factory BMW. At the other end, in an astonishing reversal, Fabrizio on the Ducati led Haslam and Guintoli on the Suzukis with Checa fourth.

The second session was another change, with Checa leading Biaggi from Rea and Guintoli, with Haslam fifth. And we said goodbye to Max Neukirchner on the Ten Kate Honda, Ducati mounted Scassa and Smrz, Aprilia's Leon Camier, the Ducatis of Byrne, Haga and Fabrizio and dipping out by just a thousandth of a second, Yamaha's James Toseland. To put this into perspective, the difference between hero and zero - pole sitter and not making the cut - was just over a third of a second.

So the last session was open for things to get exciting. And they did, as Cal Crutchlow beat Checa to the pole by just under a quarter of a second. Max Biaggi was a further two hundredths back, with Haslam a similar distance behind to complete the front row. Almost exactly a tenth of a second slower, Troy Corser headed row two from Guintoli, Rea and Lanzi. As we know, Toseland headed row three from Fabrizio, Haga and Byrne. That's some serious passing potential as there are race winners some way back. And that always makes things interesting.

As is so often the case at Valencia, Sunday dawned clear and dry. In fact as the temperature climbed it was possible that for the first time this year we may actually see grip go down as track temperatures went beyond optimum.

Warmup, just to keep us on our toes, saw another leader as Nori Haga finally found something that made the Ducati work properly around a circuit where last year he was pretty dominant. Leon Haslam was second, ahead of Smrz, Toseland and Corser. But of course we can't really draw any conclusions from warmup. Some riders play head games, some are still genuinely scratching around to find something that works, some just use the time to get themselves vaguely dialled in and to give their spare bikes a bit of a going over, just in case.

On to Race One, then. Lights out and it was Carlos Checa who stormed into an early and commanding lead, with Troy Corser making the most of his experience and the BMW's excellent launch characteristics to get another fantastic start and slot into second ahead of Biaggi, Haslam, Camier and Toseland. Pole sitter Cal Crutchlow got a truly horrendous start, dropping back to seventh at the end of the first lap and in danger of being mauled by Sylvain Guintoli. While the pack scuffled and squabbled for position, Checa was making the most of his clear track and trying to extend a lead over the pursuing field. And for a while it looked as though he might make it, too, until partway through lap three he lost both ends of the Ducati on one of the endless left handers. Miraculously the Spaniard kept the bike upright on his knee and barely lost any time, but unfortunately that particular left hander was followed by a right and his herculean save was spoiled by not being able to get the still unstable machine turned in time, and he ran across the gravel and out of contention.

Which left the lead in dispute. Because it was Troy Corser who had come out on top in the battle behind, ahead of Haslam and Biaggi. And the veteran Australian held a solid lead for a couple of laps before yielding to the pressure being put on by Haslam. The BMW is certainly very fast, and now it seems that the team may have addressed some of its other problems and made the complete package work as well as it should. Because it was proving an extremely difficult motorbike to overtake. Corser stayed in second place for another five laps, while behind him battle raged between Biaggi, Toseland and the very fast Leon Camier. The likeable, lanky Aprilia rider crashed out, unhurt, on lap eight when the front wheel washed out under braking and dumped him on his ear.

Leon Haslam has never been one to pass by an opportunity, and in a textbook example of mature racecraft, the young English rider turned in perfect lap after perfect lap, never looking threatened or flustered. And behind him there was a real race going on as Toseland, Corser and Biaggi fought for the lower two podium places. For a while it really looked as though the BMW would take the slot, but after being passed by Toseland it wasn't long before Biaggi also muscled past Corser. And further back, Haga had recovered from his lowly start and was beginning to show signs of the form we've been missing from him so far this season. Despite their best efforts, both Crutchlow and Rea were despatched without much ado and the Sultan of Slide was on the move, relentlessly hunting down his 2005 nemesis, Troy Corser. But that BMW really is fast, and Corser simply surged back past the Japanese rider to retake fourth.

At the end, Haslam had sufficient of a lead to pull a magnificent wheelie all the way down the straight and across the line, while with Biaggi took second from Toseland a couple of laps from the end. Corser held fourth from Haga by just a tenth of a second, the top five being split by just over four seconds. Then came a five second gap before Rea and Crutchlow, their race long battle decided in the Ulsterman's favour. Another six seconds passed before lanzi crossed the line a couple of seconds ahead of Guintoli and Smrz who rounded out the top ten. Shakey Byrne and Michel Fabrizio both crashed out early on and scored no points.

Race Two was warmer and so grip levels were rather lower. And it showed from the off as Checa slithered into the lead from Rea and Biaggi, with Guintoli, Haga and Corser doing OK but everyone else struggling. And three laps in things came to a premature halt as Simon Andrews appeared to lose power on the Kawasaki while in close quarters battle with Vittorio Ianuzzo a little way down the main straight. The Italian couldn't avoid a collision, firing the hapless Englishman into the pit wall while he managed to get the stricken Honda to a smoking halt on the grass, collapsing in a heap next to it. The red flags came straight out as there was debris everywhere as well as most of the contents of the Honda's sump on the track from the impact point, where the oil cooler was wrecked, to the final resting point of his bike. Though it looked horrific, the end result was bruising for the likeable Italian and a couple of fractures in Andrews' left heel and foot. So nowhere near as bad as it could have been, then.

Restarting in the order they were running when the flags came out, the riders lined up for the second twenty lap session. Times would be aggregated, which made judging who was where pretty complicated until the final results were published. But when the lights went out it was young Leon Camier who surged into second place behind Biaggi, taking the lead before the end of the first lap. Checa slotted into third from Rea and Haga, while Byrne got a great start to take sixth from Corser who was clearly struggling for grip. As was Haslam, back in eighth, just ahead of Fabrizio and Guintoli, while the Yamahas languished further back still. Camier was riding superbly, using his size and strength to the best advantage as he made the Aprilia change direction incredibly fast through the twisting infield and extending a slight gap over his pursuers.

Haga got past Rea by lap three and started closing on the leaders while Corser dropped further and further back. And so it continued until lap ten, when Camier, who was looking safe and secure and likely to get at least a podium (remember that the times were aggregated and Checa had a second and a half lead to beat) had a huge and rather strange looking crash, again walking away unharmed but with a very sorry looking highsided Aprilia. Which left Biaggi fending off the attentions of Carlos Checa, hungry for a home win, and Nori Haga, hungry for any win. And somehow the Japanese rider bridged the gap, passing first Checa and then Biaggi in a couple of textbook manouvres. But passing is one thing, gapping is something else, and Checa still had a cushion.

The leading trio kept up a punishing pace and soon broke away from the rest of the pack, which seemed to be British Superbikes on tour as Shane Byrne, Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam, Sylvain Guintoli (half Brit), James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow formed a massive twelve wheel freight train. Places swapped regularly in the train, and the pace was sufficient that they didn't all slow each other down.

Back at the front the pressure was showing. Biaggi's Aprilia was bucking and weaving like a wild thing. Checa had a couple of lurid slides and Haga was clearly pushing as hard as possible. Rea, too, had a massive near highside which he managed to save without losing either position or rhythm. Which was impressive.

And so one of the closest overall races ever finished. Haga took the chequered flag by under a second from Biaggi, with Checa half a second further back. But this is aggregated, and when that's taken into account the times are a bit more exciting. Haga finally took the win by twenty five thousandths of a second from Checa with Biaggi two tenths of a second further back. Leon Haslam did enough to take fourth, though the gap was ten seconds from Haga, with Rea, Guintoli, Toseland, Byrne and Crutchlow following. That's pretty rough on Byrne, who rode to an immaculate fifth place on the track but was relegated to eighth overall.

So it was a pretty close and exciting couple of races. Toseland took his first piece of silverware home since Brands Hatch in 2007, Haga found his mojo, Camier and Biaggi got the most out of their Aprilias and Corser showed that the BMW, on its day, is as fast as anything out there. Assen is in two weeks, and suits the four cylinder bikes better. Which means that the racing might just be even better. See you there!

Race One

1 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
2 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
3 James Toseland (Yamaha)
4 Troy Corser (BMW)
5 Noriuki Haga (Ducati)
6 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
7 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
8 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
9 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
10 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)

Race Two (aggregate)

1 Nori Haga (Ducati)
2 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
3 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
4 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
5 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
6 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
7 James Toseland (Yamaha)
8 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
9 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
10 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)

Championship Standing after three rounds:

1 Leon Haslam 123
2 Max Biaggi 105
3 Carlos Checa 80
4 Nori Haga 79
5 Jonathan Rea 60
6 James Toseland 50
7 Sylvain Guintoli 50
8 Michel Fabrizio 46
9 Troy Corser 46
10 Cal Crutchlow 41

SB