The Moment Haga Lost the World Championship
Noriyuki Haga struggled all weekend at Portimao to get his Xerox Ducati setup and never quite got it right. Add too hard tires in the first race. Then add needing to push hard to keep a rapidly disappearing Ben Spies in sight after he bolted from pole position and Haga started 10th. Some said Nitro Nori, so close this time to that elusive World title and 10 points ahead would win or crash. On lap 6 the front tire folded while he was in 5th place.
The irony was that Haga could have finished 5th and still been in the running. He would then have needed to win the final race of the year. Instead he finished 2nd, behind his teammate. It wasn’t enough. Spies cruised to 5th and snatched the World title. Haga had led the championship race at every round, bar one, despite crashing and injuring himself at Donington Park but after the last race of the 2009 season he came up 6 points short.
Source: Visordown
Want More?
Read How Ducati Strategy May Have Cost Haga Title
Read How Ducati Defend Lack of Team Orders
Read More Posts on Noriyuki Haga
Try These Related Posts:
