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Haga Shows why he is the Championship Leader

Xerox Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga won Race 1 of the Kyalami round of the World Superbike Championship ahead of his teammate, Michel Fabrizio. Yamaha’s Ben Spies took 3rd place. The results further opens the lead in championship for the Japanese rider to 63 points.

Haga blasted off the line to lead from Spies who squeezed Biaggi out at the first turn. Fabrizio in 4th quickly dispatched first Biaggi who ended up 3rd and then Spies to allow the two factory Ducatis to boom over the start finish line for the first time. Buoyed on by his Monza win, Fabrizio then passed Haga on the second lap to take the lead.

The race then settled down but by mid distance, Haga had closed up on his teammate and they both began to drop Spies off with Jonathan Rea (Ten Kate Honda), Aprilia mounted Max Biaggi and the 2nd Ten Kate bike of Carlos Checa further behind. Haga executed a surgical strike on Fabrizio and swept back into the lead for the first time in 11 laps.

Spies immediately upped his pace as he saw Haga take the lead and closed up to Michel Fabrizio seemingly effortlessly, lapping 4/10ths faster on the 13th lap. It took 4 laps but eventually Spies made his move and took 2nd place. This time there was no wave from Michel!! A lap later Fabrizio went up the inside of Spies but Spies re-passed on the exit. The effort that Spies was exerting to stay ahead of the second Ducati was telling as shortly afterwards he had a big rear end slide with his feet off the pegs, so Fabrizio went ahead once again.

Spies seemed to heed the warning and that was how they finished, Haga visibly slowing on the last lap took the flag a second ahead of Fabrizio who was 2.4 seconds in front of Spies. Jonathan Rea finished 4th just ahead of Max Biaggi who ran wide on the last turn.

1 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 39’47.436 (153,66 kph)
2 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 0.950
3 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 3.391
4 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 8.914
5 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 9.019
6 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 14.812
7 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 14.971
8 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 15.723
9 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 21.529
10 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 21.795
11 36 Lavilla G. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 29.872
12 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 34.216
13 132 Morais S. (RSA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 34.275
14 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 38.280
15 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 40.885
16 10 Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 44.841
17 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 49.075
18 31 Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 49.702
19 33 Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 50.065
20 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 50.391
21 49 Whyte S. (RSA) Yamaha YZF R1
22 17 Martin S. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR
RET 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
RET 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR

Haga further extended his lead in the championship to 63 points with race 2 still to run.

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