Last year's visit to Monza is probably one that Chris Vermeulen and the Ten Kate team would rather forget, ending as it did with the disqualification of the young Australian over a technical infringement. This year, though, may generate more of a smile.

Monza is a very fast circuit. Fairly flat for most of it, over the years chicanes have been put in to slow things down a little. Slipstreaming is the order of the day and the long back straight leading into the infamous Parabolica has been the scene of more last minute do or die outbraking manoeuvres than just about anywhere else on the calendar. At the other end of the start/finish straight, now broken by a chicane, is Curva Grande, possibly one of the greatest tests of a rider's bottle anywhere. It's a fantastic place.

Qualifying saw little in the way of surprises. Gianluca Nannelli is a bit of a surprise, I suppose, riding as he is in both Supersports and Superbikes. Busy man, and doing well to qualify twelth, by far the best non factory Ducati. While we're on Italian vee twins, the factory pairing of Toseland and Laconi had a reasonable qualifying session with Toseland placing the F05 eighth on the grid and Laconi on the front row in third. This being the type of circuit it is, exactly where you start from is less important than having the legs for later. Karl Muggeridge qualified fourth, just ahead of Ten Kate team-mate Chris Vermeulen and Yamaha's Andrew Pitt. Chris Walker's Kawasaki sat next to Toseland to close off the second row. Frankie Chili headed Giovanni Bussei, Nori Haga and Nannelli on row three.

Race One saw what we have seen so many times before. Andrew Pitt, Yukio Kagayama and Troy Corser all go off the line like scalded cats. Regis Laconi follows close behind. Karl Muggeridge does a start that actually beggars belief and rockets from fourth back to eighteenth while the rest of the pack try to avoid going over him. Lap one saw Corser extend a barely believable second lead over Kagayama while Pitt faded a little quicker than usual, dropping back to fourth by the end of the lap. Chris Vermeulen went for an early bath, the Ten Kate Honda exploding on the exit of Ascari. At the front Corser continued to pull away though Kagayama had attached elastic and kept closing the gap up again. Indeed at one point they were close enough to swap paintwork going around Parabolica, but somehow Corser managed to stay on top. Further back, Toseland got past Walker and then Pitt, and started what is without a doubt the best ride of his year, closing an enormous gap to get right back on the tail of the leading pack, seemingly without effort. The young Englishman then stayed behind Laconi up until two laps from the end when the Frenchman tried to get past Kagayama, ran wide and found himself being very neatly, but most comprehensivel, passed by his team-mate. Toseland then set about reeling in Kagayama, but with just over a lap to go was able to get very close but not close enough. Or could he? Entering the Parabolica, Toseland carried far more corner speed than the Japanese rider but was forced to take a very wide line, ending up ina neck and neck drag for the line. And in a straight drag race between a vee twin and a four, the four is likely to prove the winner. Sheer horsepower won out over determination and Toseland took his first podium of the year in third place rather than second. Laconi came in a few tenths of a second behind, ready to pick up the pieces, with Pitt a long way back in fifth. Karl Muggeridge rode a sterling race, despite the dire start, finishing sixth. Who knows what might have happened if he'd not goofed the start? Frankie Chili made a solid seventh ahead of Chris Walker with the hard working Gianluca Nannelli ninth and Norick Abe rounding off the top ten.

Race two, of course, was rather warmer and everyone was going to have to be careful with their tyres. From the start it looked as though something special might happen. This was Italy, after all, and it wouldn't be right for a Ducati not to win, right?

Certainly Regis Laconi thought so, as he got the holeshot off the line and proceeded to break the tow and just clear off. Well, that was the game plan I'm sure. What actually happened was he got the holeshot, streaked off and had a freight train of bikes climbing all over the back of him for the next eighteen laps. Tryo Corser, naturally, was the next bike along, with Kagayama pushing hard. Very hard, in fact, to the extent that the Japanese passed his team-mate on a number of occasions before it all went wrong on Curva Grande and he ploughe doff into the gravel, dropping the Suzuki at walking speed. Unfortunately he couldn't restart as the big engine vacuumed up some gravel which it promptly swallowed before expiring. So we had am eight wheel, fourteen cylinder freight train. Laconi led Corser led Vermeulen led Muggeridge. Toseland had got past Pitt and was going well though wasn't able to close the gap enough this time to join in the big fight at the front. Behind Pitt, Frankie Chili and Chris Walker were closing him down and fighting among themselves. Both would surely have finished higher had there been another couple of laps as Pitt faded fast. Indeed, Pitt looked, for the first time, as though he might get beaten by his team-mate Haga who was also closing fast in ninth place. And rounding off the top ten was Gianluca Nannelli, despite having started from the pit lane after his bike broke down on the warmup lap. That man knows how to work for a living...

So there we have it. Except for one small thing. Vermeulen got the drive out of Curva Grande on the last lap and stuffed the Honda past Laconi in the same place that Toseland passed him in the previous race. And managed to make it stick. Lesmo one and two were close. Ascari was nailbiting and the Parabolica was just plain scary as both riders fought to get traction while retaining enough grip to stay on. remember that twins versus fours thing from Race One? Same deal here, with the added benefit of the four cylinde rbike already being a couple of lengths in front. So Vermeulen took Honda's forst win of the season. Laconi so nearly saved the day for Ducati. Corser extended his championship lead and Toseland showed that yes, he can still ride a motorbike and yes, he can still win races.

Silverstone in two weeks and it should be great. Toseland needs to do well in front of the home crowd. Walker will certainly be putting on a show and a half as well, while the Suzuki boys will be trying to make up for the fact that, for the first time this season, something other than a Suzuki has won a race...

Race One

1 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
2 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
3 James Toseland (Ducati)
4 Regis Laconi (Ducati)
5 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
6 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
7 Pier-Francesco Chili (Honda)
8 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
9 Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati)
10 Norick Abe (Yamaha)

Race Two

1 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
2 Regis Laconi (Ducati)
3 Troy Corser(Suzuki)
4 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
5 James Toseland (Ducati)
6 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
7 Pier-Francesco Chili (Honda)
8 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
9 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
10 Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati)

Championship Standing after four rounds:

1 Troy Corser 182
2 Yukio Kagayama 130
3 Chris Vermeulen 115
4 Regis Laconi 87
5 Andrew Pitt 60
6 James Toseland 57
7 Chris Walker 54
8 Norick Abe 54
9 Noriyuki Haga 52
10 Pier-Francesco Chili 44