...And we don't mean a Kawasaki.

Vallelunga, the circuit with many paddocks, is a bit of a paradox. It's a lovely circuit to ride (according to the editor) and it's ever so picturesque. But it's a little, um, intimate. In the same way that when a band does a gig in a smokey little pub in East London that's described as intimate. Instead of pokey, cramped, woefully inadequate or any othe rless kind expression. We like it here, as do most of the riders. But the infrastructure and facilities are slightly borderline for a major international event. And of course we mean that in the nicest possible way.

Qualifying saw some, erm, predictable results as by the end of the first and second session Bayliss was fastest. In fact, it was the usual crowd who dominated the first sixteen places.

Haga was back on form on Friday, and despite a huge crash in which the bike hit him on the head he managed to top the sheets until Bayliss pulled on the throttle some more, then Saturday qualifying saw Haga's place get lower and lower until eventually he was left back in tenth.

Meanwhile, his team mate Troy Corser was up in eighth with Nieto seperating the two. Muggeridge had secured a place in eleventh with Kagayama behind him and Sofuoglu looking to have returned to something like his old form in thirteenth.

The other Hanspree Ten Kate rider, Checa, was up in sixth with Xaus, Kiyonari, Fabrizio and Neukirchner in front of him and, as said before, Bayliss in first.

Fabrizio might be a good person to look out for this weekend, this is a home track and he's very fast and consistent round here, which could lead to some interesting results and maybe a different Ducati rider on the podium...

So, for provisional superpole the places were Bayliss, Neukichener, Fabrizio, Kiyonari, Xaus, Checa, Biaggi, Corser, Nieto, Haga, Muggeridge, Kagayama, Sofuoglu, Rolfo, Lanzi and Laconi. Quite a few Italians on the front in Italy, that is sure to be a crowd pleaser!

Superpole, started and Laconi took pole at first as he was the first person out but Lanzi soon came out and beat that time, which Rolfo could not do. Kagayama then did a fast lap and took pole. Karl Muggeridge, who was out next, did not appear to be able to go faster than Kagayama for the first split of his lap, nor the second and by the end of his lap he only managed to grab a place at the bottom of the pack. Next up was Haga, who you could immediately tell was going to do well judging by the speed his bike was going and the way it was moving around. He took pole from best friend Kagayama and held it through the efforts of Nieto but then team mate Corser took the fastest lap of the weekend and pole. Biaggi couldn’t beat Corser’s time and ended up being third fastest, just behind Haga.

Checa fell off in his lap, leaving him on the third row of the grid but astonishingly Xaus also went down on his lap Both of them were OK and that is what really matters, but it certainly messed up a few people's predictions. Kiyonari couldn’t knock Corser off the top spot, neither could Fabrizio nor Neukirchner. Bayliss had everybody on tenterhooks wondering if he would be faster than Corser or not but he made the most of this last round in Italy and took pole by a clear margin.

This left the front row of the grid as Bayliss, Corser, Haga and Biaggi.

Race One started, as usual, with Bayliss immediately taking the lead and Biaggi, Haga and Corser behind him. Halfway through the first lap he was already starting to build a gap up between him and Biaggi, but Haga soon overtook Biaggi and started chasing Bayliss. By lap two Haga had taken the lead from Bayliss and Biaggi followed him through.

Corser then also overtook Bayliss, as do Kiyonari and Checa. It was at this point that Sofuoglu and Muggeridge decided to go and play together in the gravel, and it was nice to see the sportsmanship so prevalent in this series when they helped each other up and made sure there was no harm done. Kiyonari also retired from the race when he crashed on lap four, and Corser got into second by overtaking Biaggi, which didn’t last for long because soon Biaggi took second back using that local hero power-up. Further down the pack Fabrizio had just overtaken Neukirchner while Xaus had a technical problem and entered the pits.

Then something strange happened. Nothing. It was just the bikes staying in the same positions going round in circles very fast. Gaps started to form between the top pack and Corser eventually caught Biaggi and Haga up and tried to get into second again, but Biaggi held it well and soon Biaggi and Haga pulled away from the rest of the pack as Bayliss and Checa started to battle for fourth.  Neukirchner then went on to overtake Checa and Bayliss into fourth to keep his title hopes alive.

Corser managed to stay in third place for the rest of the race, and that left the finishing results as Haga, Biaggi, Corser, Neukirchner, Checa, Bayliss, Fabrizio, Rolfo, Kagayama and Nakatomi.

As we are near Rome, Haga wore a garland around his neck to celebrate his win, and we had a very happy team Yamaha.

Bayliss took the lead from the start in Race Two followed by Haga and Kagayama. On the first corner Biaggi weaved out and collided with Sofuoglu, which took both of them out in a humongous crash but luckily they both got up and walked away. Corser, Neukirchner and Fabrizio then went on to overtake Kagayama, who had got a dynamite start. Corser soon started to chase Haga down whilst Haga was tailing Bayliss, but on lap four Haga overtook Bayliss going down the straight. Unluckily for Haga, Bayliss took him straight back at the end of the straight and Muggeridge and Kiyonari ended their weekend badly when they crashed, Kiyonari managing to rejoin down in 20th.

Lap five saw the continuation of the Haga/Bayliss battle, as Haga again passed Bayliss but got overtaken straight back at the beginning. Corser tried to get a look in and sneak past them both as they ran wide whilst battling but he didn’t succeed and positions stayed the same. Haga, once again, tried to overtake Bayliss but didn’t succeed until lap six, where he took the lead and made it stick. Fabrizio had also started working his way up by overtaking Neukirchner.

Lower down the pack, Checa also started working his way up by overtaking Nieto. Anyway, Haga started to build a gap up between him and Bayliss, while the man who would be champion worked hard to close it back up, and eventually Bayliss managed to squeeze past the Yamaha rider on lap twelve going into the start/finish straight. However, Haga was determined and on lap sixteen he overtook Bayliss again, which Bayliss took back but Haga eventually managed to take him and stay in front. That was not the end of the battle, though, as on lap nineteen going into the start/finish straight Bayliss overtook Haga. Again. HOWEVER, Haga then took first back on lap twenty and stayed there.

Meanwhile, Fabrizio had overtaken Corser to get into third place and knocking Corser off the podium...or so we thought. Bayliss was not having a good day today as he then over steered, tucked the front and crashed out two corners before the flag. This left the top ten as Haga, Fabrizio, Corser, Neukirchner, Checa, Nieto, Kagayama, Nakatomi, Laconi and Rolfo.

So the championship isn't exactly wide open but it isn't as dead as we thought it might be. Bayliss only needs to pick up eleven points in the next four races to wrap it all up, but he didn't manage it this weekend so either he's making a sporting fist of it or the pressure is on and it's not as easy as it used to be...

We're off to what used to be the last round in Magny Cours, next. It's an interesting circuit with some sharp turns and is a good racing guarantee. We'll see you there.

Race One

1 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
2 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
3 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
4 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
5 Carlos Checa (Honda)
6 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
7 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
8 Roby Rolfo (Honda)
9 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
10 Sunichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)

Race Two

1 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
2 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
3 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
4 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
5 Carlos Checa (Honda)
6 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
7 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
8 Sunichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)
9 Regis Laconi (Kawazaki)
10 Roby Rolfo (Honda)

Championship Standing after twelve rounds:

1 Troy Bayliss 369
2 Troy Corser 290
3 Nori Haga 280
4 Max Neukirchner 280
5 Carlos Checa 262
6 Max Biaggi 212
7 Fonsi Nieto 206
8 Michel Fabrizio 201
9 Ryuichi Kiyonari 193
10 Ruben Xaus 160

LB