World Superbikes – 1^st Round Qatar

Race 1: Max Biaggi on board his Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki has taken the race one win on his debut World Superbike debut in Qatar. Britain's James Toseland on the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda took the lead early on and had a tough battle on his hands with Biaggi only to come home in second place. The final step of the podium went to the young Italian talent of Lorenzo Lanzi on the Xerox Ducati.

Off the line it was Biaggi who got the hole shot but that wasn't to last as both he and Toseland ran wide into turn one allowing the Yamaha team of Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga to slip into first and second places respectively.

Karl Muggeridge's weekend went from bad to worse when he crashed his Alto Evolution Honda on lap one. By the end of the opening lap Toseland was running third with Biaggi on his tail in fourth. Toseland was taking no prisoners and wasted no time in chasing down Haga and passing him for second place. As the riders approached the start-finish straight, Toseland slip streamed the race leader Corser and took the lead from him. Biaggi at this point was still in fourth place but gaining on third place man Haga and by the end of lap three Biaggi pushed by the Japanese rider to steal third. Corser had commented earlier in the weekend that the Yamahas were slightly down on top speed and that was noticeable on the long straight of Losail.

Haga was up to his old hard passing tricks and this time his victim was his own team-mate Corser, moving him up to third place. Lap seven was a tough one for Corser as Kagayama charged under him too relegating the former World Champion to fifth place. Further down the field the reigning World Champion Troy Bayliss who was running in sixth place ran very wide and ended up riding over the grass at the side of the track. Over the line for the start of lap ten Biaggi came past Toseland and clipped his knee on the way through. Toseland was still not giving in and went right back under him at the first corner. It was lap twelve where Biaggi made his decisive move and made it stick allowing him to gap Toseland.

Josh Brookes also bit the dust finishing off Alto Evolution Honda's tough first round. With five laps to go the running order was Biaggi from Toseland with Kagayama now up to third place, Lanzi was chasing hard and staying ahead of his team-mate Bayliss. Haga slid back to sixth, Max Neukirchner seventh and Corser running in eighth.

Haga and Corser faded as the race went on and finished in eighth and ninth respectively, it looks like there is still some work to be done on the new Yamahas to improve duration in the race.
Steve Martin, on the DFX Treme Honda, just missed out on a top ten finish coming home eleventh. Britain's Dean Ellison scored a point on his World Superbike debut coming home in fifteenth place.
After the race a very emotional Biaggi commented, "I'm very happy. I can only say thank you to Suzuki. We work well and want to win. I didn't expect this result, but it is great feeling, the rhythm was very fast.

Race 2: James Toseland put in a gritty performance during race two of the first round of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship in Qatar, taking a dominant lights to flag victory aboard his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda. Second place went to race one winner Max Biaggi on the Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki who chased Toseland all the way to the line. Troy Corser got his first podium on his new Yamaha by finishing in third place over all.

The Ducati team had a disappointing outing with Lorenzo Lanzi and Troy Bayliss finishing in seventh and eighth respectively. Bayliss dropped as far down the field as eleventh but worked hard to get a top ten finish.

Race two started in a similar manner to race one with Toseland in front of the two Yamahas of Corser and Noriyuki Haga with Biaggi dropping back into fourth place. By the end of the first lap Toseland had pulled a gap of 0.674secs over Haga, as ever the Samurai of Slide wasn't hanging around and he closed the gap down to 0.14secs and tried for the front but Toseland wasn't giving it way.

On lap four Biaggi set the new lap record with a time of 1min 59.194secs and managed to gain a position by passing Corser for third place. One lap later he had dispensed with Haga, lap nine saw Corser push Biaggi out of the way for second place but Biaggi took it back at turn one only to run wide and hand it straight back to Corser. Biaggi then ran wide and lost a place to Haga leaving him back in fourth place exactly where he had started the race!

Not to be out gunned, the Roman Emperor showed his true colours and talent by doing away with both the Yamaha riders in one fell swoop. This now left the way clear for him to try and pull in Toseland who was trying to romp away into the distance with the race lead. There was a consistent gap of 1.8secs between Toseland and Biaggi but on lap fourteen Biaggi ran a little wide and over the curbs. This lost him some precious time and the gap extended to 2.12secs. The last lap of the race Biaggi really closed down on Toseland but he wasn't close enough to make a move and he had to settle for second place.

Corser was pleased to be on the podium on his first outing with his new team, he said, "I'm disappointed with race one, I had a tyre problem and the bike was just unrideable.”

Biaggi was also pleased with his day's work, "I'm very happy and satisfied overall. I couldn't close the gap to James, I needed more laps, he made a break and was hard to catch. The bike was good, it was a tough race. The top four are always chasing and I enjoy Superbike, I wish I had discovered this sooner!" he smiled.

Toseland and Biaggi are joint leaders in the championship standings with Lanzi in second and Corser in third. Bayliss didn't get his championship defence off to a good start and is currently sixth overall.

WORLD SUPERSPORT

The Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team had a mixed start to their Supersport Championship with reigning world champion Sebastien Charpentier crashing out of the lead, giving the Qatar win to his team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu. "I'm really happy, I was not happy yesterday qualifying in fourth," said Sofuoglu, "but I know I am good in the race. Kevin Curtain was fast in the start and if Sebastien didn't crash maybe he win. Last year he was faster but now we are the same."

Kevin Curtain on the SSP Yamaha came home in second place having led the race early on. Unfortunately for Curtain he had the wrong rear tyre fitted and it disintegrated at about half race distance. "I'm disappointed," said Curtain, "For some reason I had the wrong rear tyre and it destroyed itself on about lap eight or ten, so all I could do was bring it home." When asked about the Charpentier crash Curtain said, "That's racing, and it is better for me as I've gained more points." Third place went to the rejuvenated Katsuaki Fujiwara who had an injury strewn 2006 season but seems to be on the come back trail in 2007.

Fabien Foret and Pere Riba got their season off to a strong start for the GIL Motorsport Kawasaki squad finishing in fourth and fifth respectively. The green team had an epic battle with each other and Robbin Harms who finished sixth. Craig Jones on the Reve Ekerold Honda had a superb race, he started from twenty second on the grid but worked his way forward to twelfth place.

MotoGP - 2007 Aussie Testing

For a team that won last year's Spanish Grand Prix from pole position, Ducati Marlboro faced unexpected problems during the Jerez test - which then ended with new signing Casey Stoner sent to hospital after a heavy fall. "We tried a race simulation and that didn't go too well. I had a little bit of a glitch in the engine so I had to pull in," explained Stoner. "After that we tried going out with a different rear tyre which we couldn't get to work and I had a crash at the end. I don't usually like to go out on the track after 5.30pm, but I wasn't pushing hard. Unfortunately, it broke away on me quite quickly." Stoner sustained a knock to the head in the accident, leaving him with concussion and blurred vision in his left eye. Although MotoGP medic Dr Claudio Costa didn't believe the injuries to be serious he recommended the team take Stoner to Cadiz hospital for a precautionary CAT scan, which showed no signs of any problems.

Although Loris Capirossi guided Ducati to victory at Jerez last season, Stoner was the faster of the pair on Friday, Saturday and during Sunday's 'qualifying session' - but still claimed it had been the team's "worst test for a long time”.” Now we need to regroup and go in a different direction for the race here," said the young Australian. Capirossi was just 0.014 seconds slower than Stoner during the qualifying session, before switching back to race tyres. The Italian is "happy enough" with his race pace, but still has concerns about tyres.

Chris Vermeulen's first ever laps on a 800cc Rizla Suzuki with qualifying tyres ended in the Australian netting the eighth fastest lap time during Sunday's 40-minute shoot out at the Jerez test.
"I haven't used qualifiers all winter on the 800 so it was a good session for me, as I got to learn a lot about them. I used five rear qualifying tyres in the whole 40 minutes so we made full use of it," said Chris, who lapped 1.6secs behind fastest man Valentino Rossi. "We tried four different compounds and constructions, and we got a lot of information for Bridgestone.

"It was quite difficult during the session as there were some spots of rain and I actually pulled in on one of my laps as there was quite a bit of rain on one of the corners and I didn't want to risk anything. It's the quickest lap I've ever done at Jerez, quicker than my qualifying here last year, so it shows we are making progress and with a clear lap I am sure I could go even quicker! Although we have learned a lot from the qualifiers, our main focus is still to get the best tyre we can to do 27 quick laps in the race!" he added.