Brands Hatch, the circuit where it never rains. Not. It is, however, one of the most popular circuits with both the riders and the public, where good racing is guaranteed and the view is great from just about anywhere. It's an easy track to learn but a difficult one to master, with some pretty scary blind bends and lots of elevation changes to keep the mind focused.

As all us Brits remember, James Toseland did the double here last year in the sunshine on the lovely, pleasant Sunday. This year, however, it was nice on Thursday, not too bad on Friday and then very cold and rainy on Saturday and Sunday. This is a bit unusual for this round, as usually there is guaranteed sunshine - but I think that our editor has jinxed the weather by saying that yesterday!

The indecisive weather means that tyre choices will be difficult for teams to make, which should show some interesting results as the wrong tyre choice could send the whole race in jeopardy.

Friday qualifying gave us a taste, perhaps, of what was to come as Ryuichi Kiyonari stuck the Ten Kate Honda firmly at the top of the table, followed by Haga and Kagayama in an all Japanese top three. Max Biaggi was in with a shout, as was Jakub Smrz but the rest of the usual suspects were, frankly, nowhere to be seen. In fact, there were four British Superbike champions or contenders in the top ten, with former champion Greg Lavilla and wild card entry Tom Sykes both making good showings.

Saturday was more of the same, though with Kiyo being displaced by Bayliss at the top and Neukirchner and Corser managing to get a good look in as well. The weather was really playing havoc as the track kept getting wet then trying out, with everyone diving in and out of the pits just trying to get the right setup.

As the clouds gathered and spots of rain hit the track, Superpole was declared wet. That makes everything far more interesting than usual, as all sixteen riders get twelve laps in a fifty minute period, their fastest laptime counting as their final qualifying time. Of course, with it just barely spitting everyone charged out as soon as the session started, only to get caught out near the end of their out lap as the rain came properly. With gusts and fairly heavy rain, only Yukio Kagayama came back out, putting the Suzuki clearly at the top of the timesheets. With half his allocated count of laps used up, the hugely popular Japanese rider pulled in to see what would happen next. And what happened next was that the breeze stayed there, it stayed warm and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. It didn't actually get sunny but it did stop raining. And the warm breeze dried the track very fast indeed. So with a few minutes of the session remaining, everyone came out to do their qualifying. And it was thrilling as they literally raced, wheel to wheel, in an attempt to beat the clock. It all proved too much for the 'flu ridden Ruben Xaus, who crashed out with a few minutes to go, but when the dust settled it was Troy Bayliss on pole followed by Haga, Kiyonari and the surprising Jakub Smrz. Row two saw Corser just pipping Tom Sykes with Biaggi and Neukirchner rounding it off, and row three had Kagayama, Nieto and Checa leading Michel Fabrizio.

The start of race one was delayed as it started to rain when the racers got on the grid, meaning that they all had to take the bikes back to the pits so they could change tyres. Then the rain went away again just to add some confusion.

Bayliss took the lead through lap one and kept it, with Troy Corser tucking in neatly behind him and Haga coming out of his hiding place to take third. Biaggi, down in fourth, tried to overtake Haga but he didn’t succeed. Sykes surprised us all by keeping with the leading pack in sixth. (Can I just say at this point – Phwoar I love the racing this circuit guarantees!) By lap two Corser had caught up with Bayliss and kept peeking around the outside to try and take the lead, whilst Biaggi ran wide and lost his third position to Kiyonari and Neukirchner. Soon Haga had started catching up with Corser for what promised to be an interesting top three, and he then overtook Corser on lap five on the inside.

Now, I’m just going to confuse everyone a bit and go back down the line to Kiyonari, who had suddenly overtaken Sykes and Corser to be in third place. Back to the top two now, and Haga was going at a good pace until he low sided at Surtees. Though he was able to remount and carry on pushing hard, there was enough damage to the bike to prevent him from getting back into contention.

Back to Kiyonari now, and he was now closing up the gap between him and Bayliss to possibly take the lead. Corser kept going backwards as Sykes and Biaggi both overtook him. This took Sykes into third, which got us Brits really excited until his radiator let go and he had to retire from the race. Bugger.  Kiyo tried to go around the outside of Troy again but didn’t succeed. Troy keeps looking round, probably wondering where the hell he came from.

Battle for fourth now, and Kagayama and Nieto were constantly swapping places for all of lap fifteen until Kagayama took fourth and held it. Biaggi had now started filling in the gap between him and Kiyonari. On lap twenty-two Kiyonari impressed everybody by overtaking Bayliss and managing to stay there. No surprises on lap twenty-four when Laconi crashed, and Biaggi had now completely closed up the gap. However, he didn’t manage to overtake Bayliss, leaving the results as Kiyonari, Bayliss, Biaggi, Kagayama, Nieto, Checa, Neukirchner, Corser, Smrz and Rolfo.

Ruben Xaus, suffering from 'flu already before crashing out in Superpole, didn't start.

Race two started with, once again, Bayliss taking the lead on the first turn with Haga and Corser tucking in behind him. Kagayama ran off track and dropped his bike slowly in the gravel. Corser then overtook Haga into second place.

For the start straight of lap two Bayliss, Corser and Haga were pretty much neck and neck (and neck) but the positions stayed the same. Yukio Kagayama touched Tom Sykes in the first lap melee at Druids', going down in the process. He was able to restart but a long way back. Biaggi then ran off track, doing well to avoid a nasty crash as he almost reached the tyre wall before managing to even slow down very much and rejoined the race much later down the field. Haga kept peeking around Corser but Corser managed to keep second held well until lap five, when he ran wide giving Haga and Kiyonari a chance to overtake him. However, Corser then cut Kiyonari off managing to hold third.

Bayliss then did a spectacular save when he ran a bit wide and Haga got a look in, the Australian keeping first until lap seven when Nitro Nori took first place and kept it. Kiyonari then followed suit and also overtook Bayliss.
Then the battle for first started. Kiyonari overtook Haga on lap nine but Haga took him back straight away, and on lap eleven Kiyo had another go and managed to hold first for the rest of the race.

As his tyres went off, Bayliss then suddenly went backwards down the pack, and by lap eighteen he was sixth. Neukirchner and Sykes started to battle for fourth, and the factory Suzuki prevailed on the start straight of lap nineteen and Neukirchner managed to get ahead of the British wild card. The next two laps saw Bayliss get overtaken by Fabrizio and Checa, then Fabrizio took fifth from Sykes on lap twenty three.
Kiyonari’s fast speed showed by the end of the race, as he completely left Haga behind to take a flying win with Haga in second followed by Corser, Neukirchner, Nieto, Fabrizio, Sykes, Checa, Smrz and Lanzi.

Some of the best racing we've seen this season, then, and another British round in five week's time at Donington. It'll be great...

Race One

1 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
2 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
3 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
4 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
5 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
6 Carlos Checa (Honda)
7 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
8 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
9 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
10 Roby Rolfo (Honda)

Race Two

1 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
2 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
3 Max Biaggi (Ducati)Troy Corser (Yamaha)
4 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
5 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
6 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
7 Tom Sykes (Suzuki)
8 Carlos Checa (Honda)
9 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
10 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)

Championship Standing after ten rounds:

1 Troy Bayliss 309
2 Max Neukirchner 230
3 Troy Corser 218
4 Carlos Checa 215
5 Nori Haga 210
6 Fonsi Nieto 161
7 Ruben Xaus 148
8 Michel Fabrizio 147
9 Max Biaggi 146
10 Ryuichi Kiyonari 115

LB