5th fastest time for S. Aoyama in the 250cc

In his first contact with the Chinese track
Positive day for Shuhei Aoyama, after his unfortunate Sunday performance in Istanbul two weeks ago and complicated first timed session for Sebastián Porto.
Aoyama, has shown in his first contact with the Chinese track, that he feels very comfortable under the rain on the Shanghai circuit, setting the sixth fastest time in the morning and the fifth in the afternoon.

However, team mate Sebastián Porto cannot say the same about this first day under the rain after setting the seventeenth fastest time in the morning and the twenty-second in he afternoon, after crashing in a session that was marked by the several crashes happened in that class.

Shuhei Aoyama (38 laps, 200'678 Km): "I'm very happy with this result because I think that my team deserves it after the hard work they are doing. I like this circuit and the grip of the asphalt in the wet is impressive. We have a good setting for the wet but I'm a bit worried because of the weather, because they are announcing rain again for tomorrow but dry on Sunday and if they're right, the settings will be like a lottery.
The bike has a good set-up right now and what the rider has to do is to keep concentrated on the two remaining days of the GP."

Sebastián Porto (29 laps, 153'149 Km):< "It's been a complicated day. The truth is that we expected a lot because there were several new things to test, but with no doubt this has not been a good day for me. Today, with the rain, things became really complicated. We didn't find the right setting in the morning, and then, in the afternoon I had a crash right after the start of the practice, so I had to take the second bike and it became even worse. But well, we still have tomorrow and Sunday. There's a lot left to do and we have to work to improve if it's a wet race and if it's dry, I think that we'll do much better."

Press Release Repsol

WSBK round in South Africa

… cancelled!The Round of the Superbike and Supersport World Championships scheduled in South Africa on October 22 is cancelled. The Championship will thus be ending in Magny-Cours on October 8.

Bayliss takes the double at record pace

Monza : Superbike - Races
With the Monza weather proving to be gloriously sunny, it shone brightest of all on Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) as he scored the wins in race one and two. He had serious problems from Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga on occasion, but taking the new lap record of 1'46.815 in race two to boot, he performed immaculately once again.
RACE ONE – The opening 18-lap race at Monza was the personal property of Bayliss, who won by over three seconds from eventual second place man Alex Barros, who had to work through the pack in assured fashion. Troy Corser took a close third, with Noriyuki Haga just squeezed off the podium in fourth.

A last gasp attempt to get on terms with this trio resulted in James Toseland crashing at the Parabolica on lap 17. A multiple rider first corner pile up, involving 7 riders in total, reduced the midfield and allowed the top riders to make a clean break at the earliest possible opportunity, as the rest picked through the fallen bikes and riders. No riders were seriously hurt in the crash.

RACE TWO – Bayliss had a three rider fight with Corser and Haga in race two, before stretching the legs of his loping Ducati twin to secure his second win of the day, and his fifth SBK race in a row. A slower starting Barros claimed fourth place, when a battle between himself and Toseland was terminated by Toseland slowing as his bike ran out of fuel. Toseland was clear of the following pack when trouble struck, and took fifth.

BAYLISS EXTENDS LEAD BUT CORSER STILL IN TOUCH – Bayliss now sits on a meaty 175 points from a possible 200 so far, while 2005 champion Corser is still well in the hunt with seven rounds remaining, having scored 139. A close battle is developing for third, with Toseland on 97, Barros on 95 and Haga on 93.

AUSSIES COME ON LEAPS AND BOUNDS – On another good day in SBK for Australian riders, Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) scored a fifth and a sixth, putting smiles on the faces of his team, which is based only a couple of kilometres from Monza. Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) finished one place behind Pitt in each race, an encouraging pair of results for a rider recovering from recent spinal injuries.

KAWASAKI RIDERS UP AND DOWN – Régis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) ran with the leading bunch in each 18-lap race and enjoyed his team's best individual finish of the weekend, with seventh in race one. He was forced out of race two with an electrical problem, and his team-mate Fonsi Nieto scored the top Kawasaki slot, in eighth, one place up on Chris Walker. Nieto was one of the unlucky seven who crashed in the first chicane of race one, an event in which Walker finished 11th.

ROLFO MAKES THE TOP TEN, ABE RACES AND NAKATOMI SHINES – Robby Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) scored an eighth and a tenth place at Monza, in front of his home fans, and was the best scoring home rider of the weekend. Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) raced on Sunday despite his huge crash of Friday, and also missing all of Saturday's practice.
Taken out by the melee on lap one of race one, he rode to 16th for pride's sake in race two. His team-mate, Shinichi Nakatomi, had two good rookie rides at Monza, taking tenth and 12th places.

LANZI TOP TEN AND THEN 11th – Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) did not have his best home weekend, running to a ninth and 11th place finish. A miserable Monza for Michel Fabrizio only gave him two points for 14th in race two, while Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik) was one of the first corner fallers in the opener, and took the last point on offer in race two.

SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP – Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki) jumped to the immediate lead in the Superstock 1000 race, with Danilo Dell'Omo (TCM Team Cruciani Corse) and Ricardo Chiarello (Lightspeed Kawasaki) in the second podium slots. At the end of lap three Chiarello had pushed through to second and was closing on the championship leader from then on.

He was unable to match the speed of the Suzuki man, but took a close second, only 0.357 from the win. Badovini made it a good day for the local MV factory, taking third on his Biassono Unionbike F4. In the championship Polita leads Badovini, with 50 points to Badovini's 32 and Chiarello third on 22.

SILVERSTONE NEXT UP FOR SBK HORDES – Silverstone, on May 28th, will form the first of two British races for the SBK field this season.

Troy does it again!

Mr Superpole pips Bayliss
Troy Corser fully lived up to his reputation as ‘Mr Superpole' at Monza yesterday, pipping his fellow countryman Troy Bayliss (Ducati) at the climax of a dramatic 16-rider shoot-out.
Bayliss had put in a stormer of a lap to knock Alex Barros (Honda) off the top spot and looked set to claim Superpole. Troy started his Superpole lap cautiously and was slower then Bayliss at the first split, but was quicker in the second. There was still a lot of work to do though and it was going to take a superhuman effort in the third and final split if Troy was going to do it. But that's just what he did!

The final section was perfection itself and Troy crossed the line three tenths of a second ahead of his rival (1:46.058). Third was Barros, with Laconi (Kawasaki) fourth – making it four different manufacturers on the front row of the grid.

"We tried a new qualifying tyre in the afternoon free practice and decided to give it a go in Superpole," said Troy Corser. "Going into the first chicane I was a bit careful on the brakes, so I knew that was going to lose some time. But then, I was confident that my tyres would do the job OK, so I put my head down and went for it.
The second split was pretty good, and I don't think I could've done the final split any better - it worked a treat."

"The bike's been pretty good all weekend so far and now we've got two long, hard races where tactics and slipstreaming play an important part. You can never make a break at Monza, so it's all going to come down to the last few laps, but I'm ready for that," concluded Troy.

Serious accident in Superstock race

Mathieu Gines in hospital
Yesterday's racing and practice day at Monza was saddened by a serious incident at the start of the Superstock 600 race. Several riders were involved when they crashed at the entrance to the first chicane of the super-fast Italian track.
The most severely injured turned out to be Mathieu Gines: the Frenchman was intubated by the trackside medical staff and immediately referred to the IC unit of the Monza hospital, where he will remain until his brain condition improves.

Good news from the Monza hospital this morning: after yesterday's dramatic accident, Mathieu Gines woke up and was discharged from the IC unit and transferred to another hospital department this morning. Hopefully we'll see him back on track soon.

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