Vallelunga WSB: Haga dominates race 1 to take victory

Noriyuki Haga took his fifth win of the year at race 1 in the World Superbikes round at Vallelunga today, leaving Max Biaggi to take second in front of his home crowd. Troy Corser rounded out the podium in third.

Troy Bayliss headed up the grid at Vallelunga and got a great start to shoot ahead of the pack and into the lead going into the first corner.

The lightweight Max Biaggi, anxious to do well in front of his home crowd, also got away quick to slot in behind along with Haga and Troy Corser.

In lap 1 Noriyuki Haga made his intentions clear by charging up past Biaggi and Corser, anxious to catch up with leader Troy Bayliss before he started to break away from the pack.

It then didn’t take Haga long to pass Bayliss into 1st place and Biaggi came past shortly afterwards, moving into second and pushing Bayliss from 1st down to third in the space of a few corners.

Troy Bayliss, who normally races to win and lets the championship sort itself out, seemed to be playing it safe early on given his position in the championship standings.

With 21 laps to go Corser moved up through the pack to slot into second behind front runner Noriyuki Haga.

A brace of crashes saw Karl Muggeridge slide off track on his Honda CBR1000RR, taking out Hannspree Ten Kate Honda Jr. rider Sofuoglu in the process, with his team mate Kiyonari joining him in the kitty litter shortly afterwards.

Just a lap later, Biaggi took Corser for second place and stuck behind Haga for the rest of the race.

With 7 laps to go, Corser appeared to be having bike trouble as he kept glancing down at the left side of his machine, but it didn’t prevent him from putting in some fast lap times.

With 3 laps to go, the front runners started hitting the back markers and Biaggi started to push hard making for some impressive racing. Going into a few bends he seemed reluctant to slow down, running deep into the corners on the back wheel before slamming it down and turning in late.

Biaggi had a look a couple of times, but was unable to get close enough to put a move on Noriyuki Haga. Haga had lead the race from early on and wasn’t willing to let first place slip in the closing stages.

1 41 Haga N. (JPN) Yamaha YZF-R1 39’25.030 (150,148 kph)
2 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 0.129
3 11 Corser T. (AUS) Yamaha YZF-R1 0.535
4 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R1000 5.188
5 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 6.693
6 21 Bayliss T. (AUS) Ducati 1098 F08 7.993
7 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 F08 16.976
8 44 Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 18.359
9 34 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 19.214
10 38 Nakatomi S. (JPN) Yamaha YZF-R1 19.386
11 57 Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 21.230
12 10 Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R1000 24.956
13 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098 RS 08 25.186
14 36 Lavilla G. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 31.799
15 86 Badovini A. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 33.949
16 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 34.050
17 94 Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF-R1 34.665
18 9 Walker C. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 52.420
19 88 Aoyama S. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1’02.555
20 100 Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’06.475
21 122 Smrz M. (CZE) Honda CBR1000RR 1’16.985
22 50 Lynn M. (USA) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 194 Gimbert S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF-R1
RET 13 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX-10R
RET 111 Xaus R. (ESP) Ducati 1098 RS 08
RET 73 Zaiser C. (AUT) Yamaha YZF-R1
RET 23 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 31 Muggeridge K. (AUS) Honda CBR1000RR