Brno, the Czech Republic's second city, is a lovely place. Grim Soviet era architecture is gradually being replaced with more modern, stylish stuff while the ravages of war and occupation seem largely to have bypassed the town, meaning that there are at least some of buildings still standing. The people are among the friendliest you'll find anywhere and it's still, relatively speaking at least, a pretty inexpensive gig. But that doesn't really have anything to do with the racing.

As a circuit, Brno is one of the nicest on the calendar. It has recently been resurfaced so it's about as grippy as possible, it's got elevation changes to keep it interesting and a wonderfully flowing feel to it. The riders love it, the photographers love it and the fact that the racing is always really good here means that the journalists have plenty to write about and so we love it as well.

Friday qualifying was nice and dry which led to some interesting results. As usual, Bayliss was consistently fast, but Jacob Smrz was even faster, which is expected as this is his home circuit. By the end of Saturday's qualifying practice places had swapped around and Biaggi came out of nowhere, securing the fastest lap and leaving the turnout as Biaggi, Smrz, Bayliss, Neukirchner and Nieto.

Superpole held no surprises, as the two Troys got first and second (Bayliss then Corser) after ten riders went out and set reasonably fast times. Surprisingly, Haga qualified thirteenth and only managed to get twelfth on the grid, which makes it to consecutive races which he has not been fastest for. If we hear anything as to why, we will let you know. Smrz managed to get eighth on the grid, shortly followed by Neukirchner who secured ninth. The front row was Troy Bayliss, Troy Corser, Michel Fabrizio and Max Biaggi. However, Kiyonari held onto pole for a long time and secured fifth place on the grid, and we would also like to mention that Canepa, who has never raced in superbikes before, was sixth.

Race one started with Biaggi taking the lead followed by Corser and Bayliss , but by lap two Corser had taken first from Biaggi and, whilst Bayliss tried, Biaggi held onto second. Biaggi soon took Corser back into first, but in lap four Corser, once again, overtook him. Lap four was the lap of crashes, as Laconi crashed and ended up in the medical centre and Smrz and Lanzi also crashed, both of them walked away. Xaus joined in the crashing session soon after, re-joining the race and later entering the pits. Biaggi kept trying to overtake Corser and get first place back, but Corser held well, whilst behind them Neukirchner overtook Troy Bayliss.

On lap six Biaggi’s attempts prevailed as he overtook Corser again. Meanwhile Haga was working his way up the line and was currently in ninth place. On lap nine Rolfo had to retire with a technical problem. Bayliss managed to overtake Neukirchner and take third back, whilst Kiyonari was in fifth place from his fifth place grid start (Canepa went backwards and ended up eleventh). On lap twelve Biaggi ran wide and this allowed Corser and Bayliss to overtake him whilst Fabrizio overtook Neukirchner. Soon Bayliss had overtaken Corser into the lead. Biaggi tried to follow suit but Corser immediately took second back.

Haga had now managed to work his way up to seventh, and Nieto crashed but re-joined, going from ninth to fifteenth. Positions stayed the same for a while with gaps building up between Biaggi and Corser and then between Corser and Biaggi, and on lap nineteen Fabrizio, having already tried and failed, overtook Biaggi and managed to secure himself a third place. This left the finishing positions as Bayliss, Corser, Fabrizio, Biaggi, Kiyonari, Haga, Neukirchner, Checa, Kagayama and Sofuoglu.

Race two was, even for a petrol head such as me, a bit boring until the very end. It started, unsurprisingly, with Bayliss taking the lead followed by Corser and Biaggi. It did not take long for the first crash, as Laconi high sided once again on lap two. On lap three Corser overtook Bayliss into the lead. Action was quiet for a while until lap seven when Canepa had to enter the pits with a technical problem and Neukirchner overtook Biaggi into third place. On lap nine Bayliss overtook Corser to take the lead again and he stayed there. Carlos Checa had to retire with a technical problem as did Xaus, and Biaggi soon got Neukirchner back and stayed within the top three.

That was it for a while until lap seventeen when Muggeridge had to enter the pits and retire because of, I’d imagine, a technical problem.  Then, on lap eighteen, the Corser-Biaggi battle began. It started when Biaggi overtook Corser to take second, but Corser took him straight back. Biaggi then tried again and they were neck and neck into about two corners where Biaggi managed to pull ahead a bit. Corser refused to give up, however, and soon got back into the lead. Biaggi soon overtook him again and this time stayed there.

This was not the end of Corser being overtaken, as Fabrizio then decided to take a peek and failed once when Corser took third back again. However, like a true racer, he tried again. This time they were neck and neck over the line and on the first corner of lap twenty Fabrizio managed to stay ahead, taking third place. He then started on Biaggi, making a very tight and close overtake which made everybody in the media office tense up. Biaggi then went to take him back, but Fabrizio blocked him making him run wide, leading to the end results of Bayliss, Fabrizio, Biaggi, Corser, Neukirchner, Kiyonari, Haga, Nieto, Kagayama and Sofuoglu.

A couple of footnotes: Race Two was the five hundreth World Superbike race. Quite respectable for a championship series that nobody thought would really take off. Also we would like to make a special mention of the World Supersport race, where we had the pleasure of once again hearing our national anthem on the podium thanks to Jonathan Rea. We would, however, also like to say that if life was fair then Craig Jones would have won as, until his bike broke, he was leading comfortably and looking uncatchable.

Race One

1 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
2 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
3 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
4 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
5 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
6 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
7 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
8 Carlos Checa (Honda)
9 Sonichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)
10 Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda)

Race Two

1 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
2 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
3 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
4 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
5 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
6 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
7 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
8 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
9 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
10 Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda)

Championship Standing after nine 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