Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga thrilled the large and passionate Brands Hatch crowd by taking his YZF-R1 to a spectacular win in the eighth round of the Superbike World Championship today. Team-mate Andrew Pitt rode brilliantly to take a hard fought third place to give the team its second double podium finish of the season.
Haga was involved in a race long battle with series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) to take the race two victory by just two tenths of a second after 85km of breathtaking racing.
Earlier in the day Haga finished third in race one after contesting the lead with Bayliss and Honda rider James Toseland. For the second outing Haga switched to his back-up machine, which used alternative settings, to take his fourth win at the venue in three years. In a thrilling race the pair were never separated by more than a quarter of a second as they crossed the line for lap after lap. Championship leader Bayliss applied considerable pressure in the final lap but the Yamaha man, wearing a new helmet design for this race, showed all of his experience and legendary late braking skills to take his first race win of the year and the 20th of his illustrious world superbike career.
Team-mate Pitt proved to be one of the stars of the show at Brands, providing plenty of thrills for the fans as he overcame bad starts to take a third and fourth place finish. The Australian over-revved his YZF-R1 on the line on both occasions, relegating him to the middle of the pack. The former supersport world champion was able to match the pace of the very fastest men, working his way to fourth in the opener and a fine third in the second race to complete a great day for the Italian Yamaha squad.
Norick Abe and Sebastien Gimbert brought their Yamaha Motor France machines home in the points in both races, with two 13th places for the Japanese and a 14th and 15th for Frenchman Gimbert. The team's Brands Hatch novice Shinichi Nakatomi improved each time he took to the technically demanding English circuit, finishing 17th in race two, an improvement of two places on his opener. Twenty-one-year-old wild-card Tommy Hill came home an impressive 11th on his Virgin Mobile Yamaha YZF-R1 in the day's first race but was forced to retire with technical problems in the second.
With two thirds of the season gone, Haga retains second in the championship, 77 points behind Bayliss and 11 ahead of third placed James Toseland. Pitt stays sixth in the points and has reduced the gap to fourth placed Troy Corser (Suzuki) to 36 points. Honda's Alex Barros is fifth in the series.
Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)"In the first race I could not push as hard as I wanted to in the last five laps and for the second race I used my other bike, which had other settings. I had a big fight with Troy and I was determined not to see his exhaust pipes again. It feels so good to win today. We have been close so many times, especially at the first race - where I crashed on the last lap - but for some reasons I have not been able to take the win. Today the feeling with the bike was very good and the tyres worked perfectly all the way to the end."
Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I made a terrible start in both races, which is surprising as our R1 is normally one of the quickest bikes off the line. I think that I was a bit anxious and just gave it too many revs, but each time I lost a lot of places. I just had to get my head down and get through as quickly as possible. My rhythm was good and I was pleased with my fourth place in race one, so to top it off with a podium is a fantastic end to the day. I'm especially pleased as I have some friends over from Australia for this race. They've come a long way so it is great to give them something to cheer."
Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "Brands Hatch is difficult, very difficult, and until yesterday our chances were dead. In the race things were not so bad, and in race one I finally had a battle with many riders, and scored points. So compared to qualifying, it was a big jump up. It was the best I could do. We changed the setting between races and in the beginning it was not so bad, just at the end of the race the rear was moving and sliding and my lap time went up and up. But compared to qualifying, it was much better."
Tommy Hill (Virgin Mobile Yamaha) "These boys are on it, and it was definitely a fast pace out there. I just needed to get past Nieto to get up to Walker and Kagayama, but it took too long. We changed the rear tyre to get more grip on the rear in race two but the bike had no drive and I had to stop. That was disappointing but things are a different league here and I have learned a lot."
Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "In the first race I was able to make a good start but lost a few places when I made a small mistake. After around four laps the tyre lost some grip but I tried to push as hard as possible to get a point. In the second race my start was not so good and I had to fight hard to get 14th."
Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "This was a very difficult track. Enjoyable to ride but difficult to learn and go fast on. In race one, the feeling was better than in practice, and race two, it was better again. Results were not so good, but my feelings about the improvements were better."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "This is a great result for the team to take into the month's break. After the first race Noriyuki said to me that he could not go any faster on that bike - but he felt he could win on the other bike. I think he had only done about 10 laps on that bike over the three days but he knew what he was doing and rode brilliantly in the second race. Andrew rode well in the first race but said that he needed to make a better start. Unfortunately in the second race he made an even worse one but was able to make it through for our second double podium of the season."
Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) "Not so bad, because again we had each rider finish, six out of six. We also had two riders in the points so for us, as a team developing kit parts, this is not so bad. In front we only had factory bikes, so I am proud of this result."
Circuit Length: 4197
Temp: 29
Crowd: 115,000
2006 WSB Brands Hatch: Race 1 - 25 Laps 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 36'26.855
2 James Toseland Honda GBR 0'1.657
3 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 0'2.248
4 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 0'2.860
5 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'9.666
6 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 0'16.731
7 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 0'16.892
8 Alex Barros Honda BRA 0'20.707
9 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'25.196
10 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 0'25.338
11 Tommy Hill Yamaha GBR 0'26.477
12 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 0'26.709
13 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 0'27.335
14 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 0'29.465
15 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 0'39.195
19 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'51.243
Race 2 - 25 Laps :1 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 36'29.709
2 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 0'0.184
3 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 0'2.242
4 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'6.523
5 James Toseland Honda GBR 0'7.073
6 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 0'7.521
7 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'10.903
8 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 0'19.715
9 Alex Barros Honda BRA 0'22.202
10 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 0'26.797
11 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 0'29.702
12 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 0'29.804
13 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 0'31.829
14 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 0'34.177
15 Vittorio Iannuzzo Suzuki ITA 0'35.267
17 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'43.413
Best Lap: James Toseland Honda GBR 1'26.351
Rider Standings 06/08/2006: 1. Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 307
2. Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 230
3. James Toseland Honda GBR 219
4. Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 193
5. Alex Barros Honda BRA 166
6. Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 157
7. Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 126
8. Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 96
9. Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 96
10. Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 87
11. Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 84
12. Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 83
13. Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 77
14. Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 72
15. Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 66
17. Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 29
19. Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 18
Manufacturer Standings 06/08/2006 1. Ducati 317
2. Honda 267
3. Yamaha 259
4. Suzuki 259
5. Kawasaki 140
6. Petronas 4
Related Linkswww.yamaha-racing.com
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