Despite only just losing out to his arch title rival, Ben Spies, in the first outing, Haga capitalised on the Yamaha riders’ machine issues in the second race of the day to take a commanding win. Haga now enters the last round at Portimao, Portugal, with a 10 point advantage. It was a solid performance from the Arai-wearing British riders. Hanspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea was holding a comfprtable 2nd place in the first race until he had to retire with a mechanical issue, allowing Max Biaggi to take the young Irishman’s fourth place overall in the championship. Rea made up for his disappointment by taking the final podium in the second race. Leon Haslam put the problems surrounding the future of his Stiggy Racing team behind him to score two solid 5th places.
Noriyuki Haga - Race 1 – 2nd , Race 2 - winner “In Race 1 I really enjoyed myself, it was a fantastic race. I didn’t make the best start and then it took a lot of laps before I was able to pass Max. Once I got past him I realized I didn’t have many laps left in which to catch Ben; if I’d had just one extra lap, I think I’d have won. On the last lap I was waiting for Ben to make a mistake and when he did so, I managed to get up alongside him but unfortunately the next corner worked in his favour and he got past me. Then, in the second race, we made some small changes to my bike and they worked, giving me more confidence. This victory is truly a great result as we have regained a small advantage. Now we go to Portimao where Ben and I will fight for the 2009 title – I can’t wait.”
Jonathan Rea – DNF & 3rd “All weekend we’ve had a good pace but it just seems that, come the first race, we couldn’t put it together. I’m really sorry for the team because I take a lot of the blame for that. It put me out of my rhythm and then I got a bit of arm pump towards the end of race two. I was running with the guys at the front until about five laps from the end because the package we had here was as strong as at Imola last week. We’ll regroup back at the workshop and come back strong for Portimao.”
Leon Haslam - Race 1 - 5th, Race 2 – 5th “We had a little problem in race one that held us back from the leaders. In race two, in the early part of the race, we had a lot better set-up. But after about lap six or seven the bike was surging a bit so I reset the electronics. A few minor things held us back from challenging for a podium or two but I am pretty happy to get a couple of fifths.”
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