Haga’s double WSBK win at Monza
Haga wins both WSBK races in Italy for Yamaha.
Haga’s domination of the event moved him into second place in the title chase behind Ten Kate Honda’s James Toseland. After a slow start to the season Haga and his Yamaha Motor Italia team are building momentum and look to have the pace to bridge the points gap to Toseland.
Haga managing a very rare pole position in qualifying underlines the improvement of Yamaha R1. Then in the race, they were far too consistent for the opposition. In the early rounds of the championship the Yamaha’s were fast early in races, only to fade in the closing stages, as they worked their rear tires too hard. At Monza it was a different story. Toseland and the Ten Kate Honda team gambled on using a softer rear tire in race one with the intention of building an early lead that would allow Toseland to conserve the tire. However, Haga could match Toseland in the early laps, and then Haga pulled away as Toseland’s tire wore out.
In race two Toseland managed a break on the field because of the first corner confusion, only to be overtaken by Haga. Even choosing the hard Pirelli tire could not prevent a late race fade, due to deteriorating tires, for Toseland. On the last lap, with Max Biaggi on a Suzuki and Troy Bayliss on a Ducati, fighting each other to take Toseland’s second place they tripped over each other and allowed Toseland to get back to second
Reigning World Champion, Troy Bayliss, demonstrated the Ducati’s speed on a clear track with second place in qualifying, but had difficulty using the pace in race conditions. The V twin Ducati is slower in a straight line than the four cylinder Japanese machines and Bayliss makes up for this under brakes and through the corners. On the long Monza straights, Bayliss had to work hard to pass other bikes. In race two, Bayliss lost out in the charge to the slow first corner, going from second on the grid to eleventh place. It took him too long to work his way towards the front.
"I didn't get off to a very good start in race 2 and had to be very forceful in the early laps. I then did my best laps in the second part of the race, but honestly I'm just happy to have been on the podium two times this weekend because we knew it was going to be very difficult here,” said Bayliss.
Roberto Rolfo was the big improver at Monza, even though he only finished one race for a fourth place. The performance of his Ten Kate Honda teammate James Toseland, the championship leader, highlights Rolfo’s disappointing season so far. The former 250cc Grand Prix front-runner has struggled to come to grips with the heavier and less precise Superbikes. This weekend he turned it around and mixed it with front-runners. Rolfo even overtook Toseland in the first race and looked set for second place only to have his Honda die on the last lap.
Lorenzo Lanzi on a Ducati
|
Troy Bayliss on his Ducati
|
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles