The totally different complexion of both races at Philip Island was proof that this should be the most wide open championship ever. With so many fast men lining up on the grid, any small set back is liable to leave a rider with a mountain to climb. As ever the opening laps were crucial, with qualifying leaving some fast guys like Tom Sykes with too much to do. Not that starting on row 4 stopped Nori Haga hitting the front in both races in no time, having qualified lamentably on the factory Xerox Ducati 1098.

In contrast to Race 1, Race 2 was splendid for Ben Spies, debuting on the new factory Yamaha R1. Having qualified on pole, he hit the front and held the lead for the early laps, until Haga blasted past on the Gardiner Straight just before half-distance. Biaggi sat in their wheel tracks on the Aprilia RSV's most encouraging first ever outing. Fabrizio kept coming on the other Xerox Ducati, bringing the brilliant Leon Haslam (Stiggy Honda) and rejuvenated Regis Laconi (DFX Ducati) with him.

With 5 to go Fabrizio went under Max at MG corner, allowing the front two to make the break, with Spies taking back the lead at the Straight's end. From then on the brilliant American got his head down and went all out for the win, gapping Haga to win by 1.2 secs. The last spot on the podium was now up for grabs, and a mighty dice ensued with four men going all out to claim it. Unfortunately for Biaggi, Laconi got in his way and Max went off, leaving Haslam to snatch third quite brilliantly.

That he was way ahead of the other more vaunted Brits says a lot about Leon's potential. It was an utterly dismal start to the season for Shakey Byrne, who crashed out of both races, having already bashed himself in practice. Kiyonari similarly did not score one point, being been punted off on lap1 of Race 1, and then mired at the back of the pack with the Paul Bird Kawaskis of Tamada and Parkes in Race 2. Sykes didn't do well, but he did have the pace at times, at least. All of them did better (well, they got some tracktime and data) than poor old Gregorio Lavilla and the GMT94 team, who didn't turn up due to lack of funds. One word Greg - desperate.

The new qualifying format had some heavy hitters scratching their heads wondering how it had gone so wrong. The top 20 have 8 or so minutes to put in a fast time. The bottom four are then knocked out. Then there is another short session, when another 8 are knocked out, leaving the last 8 to fight out the top two rows. Times are not carried across from one session to the next, hence Regis Laconi putting in the fastest ever superbike lap (1.30.05 secs) but only qualifying in 8th, as he did it in the second session, and not the last. Corser looked quite put out after coming 17th in the first session on the new BMW, and not making it through to qualify higher. The time to use the qualifying tyres is now a massive tactical decision, and only the most confident will hold them back for the last session. Typically it seemed that Biaggi was the only one to have done so!

Race 1 was quite different after Spies went off at turn 2 and having crossed the graveltrap, rejoined 30 secs behind the pack. Jonny Rea was showing well with Laconi and Haga in the early laps, but faded slightly, the team suffering tyre problems that they clearly did not solve for Race 2. Laconi was at the sharp end, but it was the Alstare Suzukis of Kagayama and Neukirchner who came through to pose the threat to Nori. By the end Haga was dicing with Neukirchner for the win, with Yukio safe in third. It looked like Max had it in the bag, but a big slide on the down slope of Lukey Heights let Nori through, to win by a bike length from the promising German. Rea just held off Haslam and Laconi to nick fifth, with Fabrizio 2 secs ahead in fourth.

Race 1 Quotes

Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) : "One thing that I have is great experience because in 2005 I was in 16th and won a race, so now everybody knows it doesn't matter where the start position is, we don't need qualifying! I'm very happy for the win, I have just switched to Ducati, I already had four crashes with the bike, but our team did a great job. In the last two laps it started to rain a bit then on the last lap Max passed me but I put big pressure on him thinking where to pass him. He made a mistake and I won."

Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare) : "On the last lap I made a little mistake and that probably cost me the win. The last five laps Nori was in front and I could see that he had a bit better traction on the last corner but I caught him on the last lap and I said 'I win, I win' but it was too much and I had a small slide and that was it."

Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare) : "I'm happy to get the podium, my last one was in 2007! Both for Max and me our starting positions were not so good, and too many riders caught me in the early laps. But I did a steady ride to third."

Race 2 Quotes

Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) : "The first race was not picture perfect for us. The second one was really tough, we had a couple of goes in the lead and tried to break but couldn't do it so I sat and watched Nori. We were strong in the first half but really slow in the back two corners and I couldn't stay with him, then when the tyres went off we just went to the front with four to go and I put my head down. WSB was rough but good in the end, the new R1 was great in the first weekend for the big-bang motor. It's such a new machine for the team, hopefully we can get more out of it but for sure it's a front-running bike. WSB is so tight, people don't understand how many fast riders there are here, and it was really great out there today."

Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) : "I did a nice start again and then during the race I really enjoyed fighting with Ben. It was hard to pull away from him but in the last five laps my tyres were finished and I couldn't push anymore and I just kept the second position. I think this weekend we did a good job except for qualifying and now I'm in the lead of the championship."

Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda): "It's a big credit to the team, three months ago they were just building the bike. It's the first round and we're already on the podium. There's been a big effort and we've kind of repaid all that effort. There was a bit of argy-bargy with Fabrizio, I had a tyre mark from him from the first lap and later on in the race we had a bit of a tussle but that's what World Superbike is all about, it's a fantastic result."

World Superbike - Philip Island - Race One

Pos - Rider - Team - Time

1 - Noriyuki Haga - Ducati Xerox Team - 34'22.631

2 - Max Neukirchner - Suzuki Alstare BRUX - 34'22.663

3 - Yukio Kagayama - Suzuki Alstare BRUX - 34'27.978

4 - Michel Fabrizio - Ducati Xerox Team - 34'29.218

5 - Jonathan Rea - HANNspree Ten Kate Honda - 34'31.122

6 - Leon Haslam - Stiggy Racing Honda - 34'31.154

7 - Régis Laconi - DFX Corse - 34'31.397

8 - Troy Corser - BMW Motorrad Motorsport - 34'34.220

9 - Jakub Smrz - Guandalini Racing - 34'34.352

10 - Tom Sykes - Yamaha WSB - 34'34.392

11 - Max Biaggi - Aprilia Racing - 34'35.240

12 - Carlos Checa - HANNspree Ten Kate Honda - 34'41.727

13 - Roberto Rolfo - Stiggy Racing Honda - 34'46.780

14 - Tommy Hill - HANNspree Honda Althea - 34'50.047

15 - Shinya Nakano - Aprilia Racing - 34'50.804

16 - Ben Spies - Yamaha WSB - 34'50.866

17 - Brendan Roberts - Guandalini Racing - 34'59.979

18 - Makoto Tamada - Kawasaki World Superbike R.T. - 35'00.032

19 - Ruben Xaus - BMW Motorrad Motorsport - 35'05.245

20 - Luca Scassa - Team Pedercini - 35'26.425

21 - David Salom - Team Pedercini - 35'14.916

Not Classified

RT - Matteo Baiocco - PSG1-1 Corse - 30'47.579

RT - Broc Parkes - Kawasaki World Superbike R.T. - 12'45.945

RT - Vittorio Iannuzzo - Squadra Corse Italia - 13'00.439

RT - Shane Byrne - Sterilgarda - 11'07.673

RT - Karl Muggeridge - Celani Race - 6'26.501

RT - Ryuichi Kiyonari - Ten Kate Honda Racing

Race 2

1 - Ben Spies - Yamaha WSB - 34'20.457

2 - Noriyuki Haga - Ducati Xerox Team - 34'21.743

3 - Leon Haslam - Stiggy Racing Honda - 34'24.670

4 - Régis Laconi - DFX Corse - 34'24.947

5 - Michel Fabrizio - Ducati Xerox Team - 34'26.502

6 - Max Neukirchner - Suzuki Alstare BRUX - 34'30.404

7 - Jakub Smrz - Guandalini Racing - 34'30.631

8 - Yukio Kagayama - Suzuki Alstare BRUX - 34'32.557

9 - Jonathan Rea - HANNspree Ten Kate Honda - 34'33.199

10 - Tom Sykes - Yamaha WSB - 34'40.518

11 - Ruben Xaus - BMW Motorrad Motorsport - 34'45.311

12 - Shinya Nakano - Aprilia Racing - 34'45.649

13 - Carlos Checa - HANNspree Ten Kate Honda - 34'47.619

14 - Tommy Hill - HANNspree Honda Althea - 34'50.194

15 - Max Biaggi - Aprilia Racing - 34'50.493

16 - Roberto Rolfo - Stiggy Racing Honda - 34'58.915

17 - Makoto Tamada - Kawasaki World Superbike R.T. - 35'04.910

18 - Broc Parkes - Kawasaki World Superbike R.T. - 35'05.943

19 - Brendan Roberts - Guandalini Racing - 35'06.655

20 - Luca Scassa - Team Pedercini - 35'18.378

21 - Karl Muggeridge - Celani Race - 35'18.446

22 - Troy Corser - BMW Motorrad Motorsport - 35'20.550

23 - Ryuichi Kiyonari - Ten Kate Honda Racing - 35'28.277

24 - Matteo Baiocco - PSG1-1 Corse - 35'41.681

25 - David Salom - Team Pedercini - 35'41.733

Not Classified

RT - Shane Byrne - Sterilgarda - 17'18.797

RT - Vittorio Iannuzzo - Squadra Corse Italia - 11'26.707


Championship Points

1 - N. Haga - 45

2 - M. Neukirchner - 30

3 - L. Haslam - 26

4 - B. Spies - 25

5 - Y. Kagayama - 24

6 - M. Fabrizio - 24

7 - R. Laconi - 22

8 - J. Rea - 18

9 - J. Smrz - 16

10 - T. Sykes - 12

11 - T. Corser - 8

12 - C. Checa - 7

13 - M. Biaggi - 6

14 - R. Xaus - 5

15 - S. Nakano - 5

16 - T. Hill - 4

17 - R. Rolfo - 3



Report - Pete Morrison