Monza, the beautiful and ghostly circuit based in the middle of town just next to Milan. Also the place that causes the most problems for the team (see our blogs for details - I am not above shameless advertising).

Monza is the oldest purpose built racetrack still in use in Europe. Though it’s changed a lot from the original speed bowl, it still retains a lot of the charm, and features, of the old circuit. It’s a power track, with long straights favouring straight line speed although the chicanes added over the years in an attempt to make things safer mean that braking, and stability under braking, are also important. Though there aren’t a huge number of corners, two of them – The Parabolica and Curva Grande at either end of the start/finish straight – are pretty fearsome and test the rider’s courage and bike setup in equal measures. This, naturaly, leads to quite a few crashes. Like this one from the start of the Superstock 1000 race. At a chicane installed to improve safety...

Qualifying predicted how race one would turn out, as Neukirchner lapped the fastest and found himsef on provisional pole with Laconi surprising everybody with an outburst of sudden talent and qualifying second on the provisional grid.

Superpole saw some surprising and some expected results, Bayliss naturally got pole position, but Mr Superpole, Troy Corser, came out for his lap tenth and ended up in the third row of the grid. Neukirchner kept his speed consistent and it earnt him a second place on the grid, with Haga and Checa finishing off the front row. The second row had Kagayama in fifth, Xaus in sixth, Nieto in seventh and Kiyonari in eighth, which proved to give some interesting battles in the racing. The rest of the grid from eighth was Biaggi, Muggeridge Laconi, Corser, Fabrizio, Tamada, Smrz and Lavilla.

Race One started with Bayliss taking an inevitable lead and everybody watching sighed the sigh of a thousand "oh here we go, you can't win unless you're racing with Ducati". However, the sigh came too soon as Neukirchner quickly took the lead from Bayliss with Kagayama taking second. Muggeridge ran out of luck in the first lap when his bike popped and he had to retire from the race. Lap two started wih Neukirchner Kagayama and Bayliss as the top three, but Haga had now joined them to make battle and they all sped off together into the distance. It wasn't until lap three when some action was seen, as Kagayama decided to overtake his team mate for the lead, but it was short lived as Neukirchner took it back soon after, with Bayliss also being overtaken by Haga. This left the standings for lap four as Neukirchner, Kagayama, Haga and Bayliss.

Lap six saw some more battles between Kagayama and Neukirchner, and eventally Haga decided he was bored of watching them battle and overtook both of them on the start finish straight. Soon after this Xaus lowsided his bike and retired from the race.

Lap nine ended Haga's reign at the front as both Kagayama and Neukirchner overtook him again leaving the standings as Neukirchner, Kagayama, Haga and Bayliss. Haga tried to overtake the Suzukis again but failed to gain a place in the tables until Kagayama ran wide, giving Haga a chance to slip through but Bayliss missed the opportunity and stayed in fourth. However, on lap eleven Kagayama ran off the track, resulting in him being overtaken by Bayliss and having to put up with fourth place throughout the rest of the race. This started the battle between Haga and Neukirchner. On lap thirteen Haga managed to get first place but by lap fifteen Neukirchner took it straight back, and Bayliss started to catch them up. The last lap of the race was nail biting as Haga and Neukirchner were almost neck and neck throughout it, but the only move to overtake which Haga made was blocked by Neukirchner and the German took a well deserved first win. Haga came second with Bayliss third and Kagayama fourth.

Race Two started with Kagayama taking the lead from the first corner and being closely followed, once again, by Neukirchner. Bayliss and Nieto were third and fourth. On lap three, Neukirchner took the lead with Kagayama and Bayliss finishing the top three. Haga once again entered the scene and has took second place in order to get Bayliss, who had previously overtaken Neukirchner. Neukirchner, however, soon too Bayliss back and Haga took the opportunity to overtake Baliss too. This left the standings for lap five as Haga, Neukirchner, Bayliss and Kagayama. By the first corner of lap five (as you will see, this corner became a favourite for these two) Neukirchner had taken first back from Haga, and Kagayama soon crashed the bike and spilt some oil, but only a yellow flag was waved.

Lap seven had a moment when both Haga and Bayliss decided to overtake Neukirchner, but the young German was having none of it and took them both back. Bayliss retired shortly afterwards as the Ducati engine expired leaving him to coast into the pits.

By lap ten Haga overtook Neukirchner on the first corner but his engine soon started to smoke, making everybody in the media centre assume that he was soon to retire from the race. (Ed: The marshals trackside were taking bets where he would stop, as well as getting the black flags ready with "41" on the boards)

However, another lap went by and Haga still carried on fighting, Neukirchner overtook him on the first corner and the Yamaha engine started to smoke again. When it came to lap twelve Haga overtook Neukirchner on the first corner (see what I mean?) but before the start/finish straight Neukirchner took first back again. Neukirchner was not to now have an easy ride - guess what happened on the first corner of lap thirteen - Haga overtook him again, but once again Neukirchner took the lead back just before the start/finish straight. This time Neukirchner managed to stay in the lead past the first corner. Biaggi crashed out, unhurt, at the second chicane after nudging the back tyre of the rider in front of him and had to retire from the race.

Neukirchner managed to keep his lead until lap sixteen where he was overtaken by Haga. The lap after this he was overtaken by, surprisingly, Kiyonari who had been fighting his way up, unnoticed, from his second row start and who then went on to overtake Haga. Sadly for the newcomer, Haga and Neukirchner both managed to take their positions back just before the finish line, with Haga making a very hard pass on the exit of the Parabolica and forcing the Honda rider to back off or go onto the grass winning the race. In tha dash to the line Haga held the lead with Neukirchner second and Kiyonari third.

The riders travel across the globe to Salt Lake City for the next round at Miller Motorsports Park. It's going to be interesting as the circuit is new and somewhat isolated. Naturally, we will be reporting in full on everything that happens...

Race One

1 Max Neukircher (Suzuki)
2 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
3 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
4 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
5 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
6 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
7 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
8 Carlos Checa (Honda)
9 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
10 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)

Race Two

1 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
2 Max Neukircher (Suzuki)
3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
4 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
5 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
6 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
7 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
8 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
9 Ayrton Badovini (Kawasaki)
10 Gregorio Lavilla (Honda)

Championship Standing after five rounds:

1 Troy Bayliss 194
2 Carlos Checa 116
3 Nori Haga 112
4 Max Neukirchner 111
5 Fonsi Nieto 107
6 Troy Corser 101
7 Ruben Xaus 90
8 Max Biaggi 65
9 Ryuichi Kiyonari 65
10 Gregorio Lavilla 59

Note. Sadly, Kenan Sofuoglu did not race this weekend. His brother was killed in a motorbike race in Turkey on Friday and Sofuoglu flew to Turkey immediately to be with his family. Our thoughts are with Kenan, his family and friends.

LB