Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) bounced back into championship contention with a brilliant double win at a scorching hot Misano World Circuit in front of 68,000 spectators. Troy had a terrific battle in race 1 with Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha), Max Biaggi (Suzuki) and Troy Corser (Yamaha) to take the win, while in the second race of the day he led every lap from start to finish to hold off the challenge of Haga. With Toseland (Honda) only finishing fourth and sixth, Bayliss now moves into second place in the standings, 21 points behind the championship leader. Troy's 37th and 38th wins here today also haul Ducati back into the lead of the Manufacturers' standings.
"That's exactly what we needed and exactly what I wanted" declared Troy. "Misano is a very special place for me to come and win here for all the Italians. There's not much more to say, we changed one click for the second race just to make me a little bit more comfortable on the bike. I did some really fast laps and saw that Nori wasn't making any ground, I thought of letting him past to do some of the work but I've done that before and it didn't work so I really put my head down for a while and managed to get a little gap, then I could take it easy towards the end. I'm very happy for all our team, Xerox, Shell and all our sponsors, it's been a great journey back towards the front of the field and we leave here hopeful for the rest of the year. Unfortunately I got the Australian flag caught in the clutch on the cool-down lap and stalled the bike like an amateur! I was lucky to get a ride back, but all is well and I'm happy!"
"After my sixth place in race 1, we worked hard to get a better result in race 2, unfortunately the outcome wasn't very satisfactory" declared Lorenzo. "I'm not complaining because during the weekend we did a lot of laps on that tyre and also during the recent tests but in race 1 the tyre didn't perform like before and this prevented me from doing a good race. In race 2 we fitted a harder tyre and made a change to the set-up. However my start wasn't a good one and the clutch slipped and I had to work hard to recover. I'm not very satisfied with the results because despite the fact that I recorded some good times, the outcome wasn't the best one. Hopefully I can do better next month at Brno".
Race 1: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox)
2. Corser (Yamaha)
3. Kagayama (Suzuki)
4. Toseland (Honda)
5. Rolfo (Honda)
6. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox)
7. Laconi (Kawasaki)
8. Xaus (Ducati); etc
Race 2: 1. Bayliss;
2. Haga (Yamaha)
3. Biaggi (Suzuki)
4. Kagayama
5. Corser
6. Toseland
7. Xaus
8. Rolfo; etc
Championship Points (after 8 of 13 rounds):
Riders:1. Toseland 260
2. Bayliss 239
3. Haga 234
4. Biaggi 217
5. Corser 182
6. Lanzi 133; etc.
Manufacturers:1. Ducati 284
2. Yamaha 277
3. Honda 274
4. Suzuki 233
5. Kawasaki 102
6. MV Agusta 1.
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