In Race 1, Yamaha’s Ben Spies look set to take the win following an epic scrap with the two Xerox Ducatis of championship leader, Noriyuki Haga, and Italian Michel Fabrizio. Having pulled a slight gap, Spies Yamaha appeared to run out of fuel, therefore promoting Fabrizio the victory and Haga in second.
Race 2, Haga’s 250th WSB start, ended after the popular Japanese collided with a bird and the following loss of feeling to his arm causing him to crash out at high speed, but uninjured. With Spies taking victory, Haga lead to the championship is now 54 points. Having qualified on the second row, Hanspree Ten Kate rider Jonathon Rea battled his way to a 5th in Race one before going one better in Race 2.
The Northern Irishman finally finding a setting on his Honda Fireblade to consistently battle at the front of the pack.Fresh from two podium places at the previous round at Assen, Holland, Leon Haslam had a weekend to forget. The Stiggy Honda’s qualifying gamble didn’t pay off, giving him a lot of work from the fifth row of the gird.
Despite battling through the pack in Race One, a technical problem saw him retire on the last lap. Race Two went much better Haslam as he rode the pace of the leading pack to come through to 7th place. Unfortunately, Haslam slipped to fourth in the overall standings after Fabrizio’s excellent results.
Noriyuki Haga - 2nd, DNF “Right at the start of Race 2 I was hit by a bird on my right arm; it hurt a lot and I lost all sensation, with strong pain and pins and needles in my right arm and hand. I tried to continue to race but it was too difficult to ride and as a result I unfortunately fell. Yes it hurts but I should be back in top shape very soon. Race 1 went much better for me of course and I really enjoyed the racing against Ben and Michel. I though at the end that I would surely end third but then Ben’s bike stopped so close to the finish line and I finished in second as a result. I’m sorry for him as he deserved the win and this year me and him will continue to battle it out.”
Leon Haslam - DNF, 7th "I went out on my second bike today, which I hadn't been riding all weekend, and took a bit of a gamble with it. We had some issues with the suspension, but we decided to stay with the set up we used in Assen. It took me a few laps to get into it, but I was able to run a good pace. The pace in the end of the race was definitely good enough for a place on the rostrum. It was a tough weekend, with bad qualifying results and a disappointing first race. To finish the second race in seventh race place is a good enough result, I am pretty happy."
Jonathan Rea – 5th, 4th “We just had a few problems with the bike in the latter stages of the race – I don’t know whether it’s the light fuel load or what, but it developed a bit of chatter which was quite hard to dial out after race one. I got busted by a pretty hard move by Laconi in that race and, by the time I’d got back past him, I’d lost touch with the leading group. In Race 2 I got a much better start and tried really hard to catch Fabrizio and Kiyo, but they had a little more left in the tank at the end. Still, I’ve equaled my best Superbike result and we’ve shown that we can race at the front now.”
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