Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team rider Noriyuki Haga could not have had two bigger contrasts in his raceday at Valencia, taking a superb win in the second 23-lap contest, but crashing out of the opener at high speed. His team-mate Troy Corser was rewarded for a consistent first race ride with a podium finish in third, and then went on to score a fighting fifth in race two.
Corser's podium came in a race where 20 riders finished and there were many high profile incidents. Corser was a lonely third eventually, some seven seconds from the win. Haga crashed out of race one, losing the front at the first corner on lap four as he tried to make up for qualifying 10th in Superpole.
In race two Haga led for the second half of the race, and his margin of victory over championship leader Troy Bayliss was 1.551 seconds. Corser, who had been pushing hard throughout and got tangled up with Ruben Xaus for some time, found it impossible to keep his early pace and finished eight seconds from his team-mate.
Shinichi Nakatomi secured a fine 11th place in the incident-strewn first race, then finished 16th in race two. David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) followed up his qualifying place of 14th with a point for 15th place, while his team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was involved in a three rider crash on lap two of race one and did not start race two, as he only had one machine at his disposal here.
Noriyuki Haga (DNF and 1st, 6th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)"I was upset after race one because I was not expecting to lose the front at that point and I felt the bike was working OK. In the early laps of race two I was a bit worried because I had to use my second bike and I had to get my confidence back in the front. It was OK and when I understood that it was possible to win I pushed hard and didn't make any mistakes, which kept Bayliss behind me."
Troy Corser (3rd and 5th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
"We got a podium in race one but we were lucky. We have struggled with grip, more on the rear and when we spin we don't seem to push. It's OK for the tyre to spin but it didn't have any forward momentum coming off the corners. It feels like I am trying to ride the bike too hard yet not getting the optimum results we want."
(Team MMassimo Meregalli anager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
"We got two podiums this weekend and despite having some troubles in practice and qualifying those are two reasons why our optimism yesterday was deserved. Even if Nori fell in race one, I think in the end we can be very positive about his race two performance."
Martial Garcia (Team Manager Team YZF Yamaha)"I was happy with the first race because Nakatomi was only 19 seconds behind the winner and that's progress. We are definitely getting closer to the performance of the top guys and we were only about one second per lap slower than Haga in race two."
Christophe Guyot (Team Manager Yamaha GMT94 Team)"We had to stop Sebastien from riding in race two because we only had one bike for him this weekend and the Le Mans 24 hours is coming up soon, so we had to prioritise that. Davide scored a point at home so we are all happy for that."
Opened: 1999
Fastest Superbike lap: 1:33.805 (Max Neukirchner, Suzuki)
Lap record: 1'35.007 (Neil Hodgson, Ducati)
Last year's winners: Ruben Xaus (Ducati) and James Toseland (Honda)
Circuit Length: 4005m
Temp: 24
Crowd: 60.000
Weather: Sunny
WSB - Valencia - Race 1 - 23 Laps:
1. Lorenzo Lanzi - Ducati - ITA 37'1.894
2. Troy Bayliss - Ducati - AUS 0'2.987
3. Troy Corser - Yamaha - AUS 0'7.287
4. Fonsi Nieto - Suzuki - ESP 0'11.992
5. Carlos Checa - Honda - ESP 0'12.824
6. Karl Muggeridge - Honda - AUS 0'13.125
7. Gregorio Lavilla - Honda - ESP 0'13.191
8. Regis Laconi - Kawasaki - FRA 0'13.906
9. Makoto Tamada - Kawasaki - JPN 0'17.254
10. Roberto Rolfo - Honda - ITA 0'18.606
11. Shinichi Nakatomi - Yamaha - JPN 0'19.858
12. Kenan Sofuoglu - Honda - TUR 0'23.350
13. Russel Holland - Honda - AUS 0'23.577
14. Jakub Smrz - Ducati - CZE 0'24.082
15. David Checa - Yamaha - ESP 0'26.611
Race 2 - 23 Laps:1. Noriyuki Haga - Yamaha - JPN 37'3.590
2. Troy Bayliss - Ducati - AUS 0'1.551
3. Carlos Checa - Honda - ESP 0'2.903
4. Ryuichi Kiyonari - Honda - JPN 0'7.277
5. Troy Corser - Yamaha - AUS 0'8.051
6. Yukio Kagayama - Suzuki - JPN 0'9.223
7. Ruben Xaus - Ducati - ESP 0'10.164
8. Max Biaggi - Ducati - ITA 0'10.614
9. Regis Laconi - Kawasaki - FRA 0'17.234
10. Fonsi Nieto - Suzuki - ESP 0'18.100
11. Gregorio Lavilla - Honda - ESP 0'18.288
12. Lorenzo Lanzi - Ducati - ITA 0'18.826
13. Michel Fabrizio - Ducati - ITA 0'21.770
14. Jakub Smrz - Ducati - CZE 0'22.872
15. Kenan Sofuoglu - Honda - TUR 0'25.224
16. Shinichi Nakatomi - Yamaha - JPN 0'25.224
18. David Checa - Yamaha - ESP 0'25.615
Best Lap: Noriyuki Haga - Yamaha - JPN 1'35.131
Rider Standings:1. Troy Bayliss -Ducati - AUS 128
2. Fonsi Nieto - Suzuki - ESP 80
3. Troy Corser - Yamaha - AUS 72
4. Carlos Checa - Honda - ESP 72
5. Ruben Xaus - Ducati - ESP 68
6. Noriyuki Haga - Yamaha - JPN 47
7. Max Biaggi - Ducati - ITA 44
8. Lorenzo Lanzi - Ducati - ITA 42
9. Max Neukirchner - Suzuki - GER 39
10. Michel Fabrizio - Ducati - ITA 37
11. Gregorio Lavilla - Honda - ESP 32
12. Ryuichi Kiyonari - Honda - JPN 30
13. Kenan Sofuoglu - Honda - TUR 22
14. Karl Muggeridge - Honda - AUS 20
15. Yukio Kagayama - Suzuki - JPN 18
21. Shinichi Nakatomi - Yamaha - JPN 7
22. David Checa - Yamaha - ESP 5
23. Sebastien Gimbert - Yamaha - FRA 3
Manufacturer Standings:
1. Ducati 140
2. Yamaha 95
3. Suzuki 86
4. Honda 73
5. Kawasaki 22
