Misano, the circuit of sun, sea and sand. Where everybody is always smiling and the racers are secretly wetting themselves at the thought of the daunting, nearly flat out turn ten. This is one place where bottle and hard work can sometimes beat mechanical disadvantages, and there are frequently unexpected results.

Friday qualifying looked promising for Troy Bayliss until last minute, where Corser hopped out of the woodwork and decided to show everybody that he has not lost his touch. The provisional starting grid was predictable up to the first two places, with Corser and Bayliss staying up there. However, Jakub Smrz suirprised everyone and managed to come third on his relatively low budget privateer Ducati and Regis Laconi, who hasn't had the best season so far, rounded off the provisional front row.

Superpole saw some interesting results, as Karl Muggeridge continued to show good form and held pole until Haga, surprisingly forteenth on the provisional grid, took it from him. Haga seemed to have some problems this weekend, as he then immediately lost it to Kagayama and Tamada. Lanzi went from eleventh on the provisional grid to the top, though not for very long, ending up sixth. Ruben Xaus went from tenth to third, staying there. Biaggi came in fifth, Nieto ninth, Neukirchner tenth and Checa eleventh. Fabrizio then came out and landed himself fourth by the end of Superpole, with Laconi following with eighth. Smrz only managed a seventh place, despite being third quickest in free practice and qualifying, and Bayliss then went out and did an outstanding time which no one could beat. Or so it seemed. Troy Corser was slower than Bayliss for the first two sectors, but then on the third sector Mr Superpole found his mojo, and he took pole position by the slimmest of margins.

Race one saw Bayliss take the lead by the first corner, but this was short lived as Xaus overtook him. Biaggi came in third and Fabrizio fourth. By lap two Bayliss was already going backwards as Biaggi overtook him, with Fabrizio and Corser both overtaking him on lap three. Fabrizio was working his way up and soon overtook Biaggi to get second place. Haga’s weekend was not improving as he was in sixteenth place and stayed well away from the podium. In the meantime, Corser, Biaggi and Bayliss were having a big battle which left Corser in third, which soon changed to second as he overtook Fabrizio. Lap nine started the threat to Xaus’ lead, as Corser attempted to overtake but failed, while Fonsi Nieto crashed out but re-joined in lap ten. Roby Rolfo and Riyuichi Kiyonari both got fantastic starts. Unfortunately a little too fantastic as they both suffered a ride through penalty after going slightly before the lights went out.

By lap eleven Bayliss had started to work his way back up, overtaking Biaggi and getting into third place, while Max Neukirchner followed suit, having come out of nowhere, and overtook Biaggi as well. Fabrizio crashed, taking Biaggi with him and knocking them both out of the race as, whilst Fabrizio re-joined, he retired shortly afterwards. Soon, Neukirchner had managed to take Bayliss and started on Corser for second place, but in lap fifteen Corser took first place from Xaus, and two laps later Neukirchner got second by doing the same. Xaus’ luck got worse as in lap twenty-two he was overtaken, but this time by Bayliss. Neukirchner soon overtook Corser and turned the wick up further. The Australian rider had no answer and so that's how they ended, leaving the end results as Neukirchner, Corser, Bayliss, Xaus and Checa as the top five.

Further down the field a special drama was being played out. Alto Evolution's Shuhei Aoyama was carving his way up from his lowly twenty third place on the grid and, riding the wheels off his Honda, made it up to thirteenth and was closing fast on twelfth placed Nieto when he ran out of laps. A fantastic ride and three well deserved points for the hardest working and nicest team in the paddock.

Race two started with a surprise, as on the first corner Xaus took the lead followed by Corser, Biaggi and Fabrizio. By lap two Fabrizio’s bike had technical problems and he had to retire from the race, and then, just as Haga got up to fifth, Karl Muggeridge’s bike blew up and dropped oil everywhere, which caused a red flag.

So oil got covered up and some while later the race was restarted. Lap one this time saw Bayliss taking the first corner lead followed by Corser and Biaggi. Xaus was still on form and soon overtook Biaggi to take third. Sofuoglu crashed out to round off a dismal weekend for the Turkish World Supersport champion. At the end of lap one Xaus did a very firm overtake on Corser causing him to run wide. However, Corser soon took second back from Xaus whilst Haga was having a better time of it and had built his way up to eighth. On lap three Tamada crashed at the difficult left hander at the end of the back straight and Muggeridge also had to retire because of further technical problems. Corser soon took the lead from Bayliss while Laconi also had to retire from the race because of technical problems. Team-mates Xaus and Biaggi fought for third, with Xaus prevailing. By lap eight Haga had got to sixth and was right on Biaggi’s tail, but Biaggi was himself on Xaus’ tail and the tussling slowed them down, allowing Corser and Bayliss to disappear into the distance.

This is where the race started to go downhill excitement wise. On lap fifteen, Bayliss overtook Corser again, and on lap seventeen Xaus also overtook Corser as the Yamaha's tyres went off in the heat. On lap nineteen Bayliss ran slightly wide, but managed to keep the lead from Xaus until lap twenty when Xaus finally got everything under control and took first. Corser ran out of luck and track at the same time while trying to block an overtake from Biaggi, re-joining in fifth behind Haga. On lap twenty-one Bayliss was overtaken by Biaggi, and the results stayed like that, leaving the top five as Xaus, Biaggi, Bayliss, Haga and Corser.

Brno next, where the weather is almost always nice and the atmosphere is refreshingly quiet and respectful...we look forward to it every year - and we will see you there.

Race One

1 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
2 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
3 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
4 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
5 Carlos Checa (Honda)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
8 Gregorio Lavilla (Honda)
9 Sonichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)
10 Nori Haga (Yamaha)

Race Two

1 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
2 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
3 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
4 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
5 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
8 Carlos Checa (Honda)
9 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
10 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)

Championship Standing after eight rounds:

1 Troy Bayliss 259
2 Max Neukirchner 210
3 Carlos Checa 207
4 Nori Haga 191
5 Troy Corser 185
6 Fonsi Nieto 151
7 Ruben Xaus 148
8 Max Biaggi 117
9 Michel Fabrizio 111
10 Ryuichi Kiyonari 94

LB