Raceline Photography

the above image shows Chris Vermeulen on the 2004 Ten Kate Honda

Monza is a truly historic setting for motorsport, first opened over eighty years ago in leafy parkland near Milan. Even with the three heavy braking chicanes to break up the long flat-out stretches, it remains one of the fastest circuits these bikes experience, with the slipstream effect all-important, and there are plenty of spectacular cornering slides round the final opening radius Parabolica bend.

The Superpole session put the two GSX-R riders in front again, with only fractions between them, but for the second time it was new boy Kagayama ahead. Behind Corser came a gaggle of different makes, with the Ten Kate Honda pair (Karl Muggeridge fourth and Chris Vermeulen fifth) separated from the Suzukis by Régis Laconi and the Ducati 999 F05. James Toseland had the second Xerox bike in eighth - his best so far this year - with the Yamaha of Andrew Pitt and Kawasaki of Chris Walker ahead of him.

Frankie Chili’s Klaffi Honda led row three, but with team-mate Max Neukirchner absent after sustaining injuries in his dramatic Valencia crash. The mixed grid theme continued with Giovanni Bussei (Kawasaki), Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati), then José Luís Cardoso, Norick Abe, Mauro Sanchini and Sébastien Gimbert on row four - all bar Sanchini on Yamahas.

Race one began with Corser taking the lead, ahead of Kagayama, Pitt, Laconi, Vermeulen, Haga, Toseland, Walker, Chili, Abe, Nannelli and the rest. Muggeridge had a poor getaway, dropping outside the top fifteen, whilst Lorenzo Alfonsi didn’t get going at all. As Corser made a bid to get clear in the lead, Pitt challenged for P2 at the second chicane, the Roggia left-right, passing Kagayama on the inside going in. Yukio repaid the compliment along the incline down to the Ascari chiane, with Laconi also overtaking Pitt into the Parabolica.

At the end of lap one, Corser had a 1.7s lead over the rest, with Kagayama leading Laconi, Pitt, Vermeulen, Haga, Toseland, Walker, Chili, Abe, Nannelli, Fonsi Nieto, Gimbert, Bussei, Cardoso, Ivan Clementi, Sanchini and Muggeridge. Pitt would fall back further as Vermeulen passed at turn one, the Rettifilio chicane, and the Yamaha Italia rider would soon come under pressure from Toseland, who’d just got by the similar machine of Haga.

Ten Kate Honda will have had mixed feelings at this early stage, as team leader Vermeulen suffered a smoking engine failure on the back straight, on lap two, whilst Muggeridge was going strongly to recover places, quickly moving up from 18th to 13th. He now led Bussei, Gimbert, Cardoso, Clementi, Sanchini, Ben Bostrom, Marco Borciani, Steve Martin, Gianluca Viziello, Luca Conforti, Garry McCoy and Miguel Praia.

The up-front battle seemed to be breaking up, as Laconi and Kagayama raced hard for second, and Corser stayed just out of reach. Laconi’s favourite passing option seemed to be into the Roggia chicane, but his first attempt saw Kagayama come back through on the way out. Next time he made it stick, but a mistake at the Rettifilio saw him run over the kerb on the inside, letting Yukio back through on the normal line.

By now, this battling duo had closed back up to Corser, and they would soon be joined by a fourth rider. The race between Pitt and Toseland had seen the champion pull ahead over the start-finish line and into turn one, despite the fact that he then ran over the chicane as Laconi had done. Once in front, the Ducati man had worked hard to catch the leaders, and with two laps left they were all close together, with Laconi and Kagayama having swapped places again into a couple of the chicanes.

Kagayama tried to go for the inside of Corser at the Roggia, but also had to defend as Laconi moved inside the pair of Suzukis. Yukio’s defence left Régis vulnerable as Toseland exited on the conventional line, so that the Ducati riders exchanged positions. On the last lap, Corser defended his lead by going to the inside into the Roggia, only for Kagayama to brake later on the outside and get ahead. But Troy was back through on the exit, and Yukio proceeded to have a fairly ragged lap, running wide several times as he strove to make up ground again. Toseland was threatening, and tried to go round the outside at Parabolica, but just failed.

So Corser took his fifth win in a row, with Kagayama, Toseland and Laconi all close behind. Pitt held onto his solitary fifth, but positions behind him had seen many changes. Haga had fallen victim to Chili, Walker, Muggeridge and Nannelli, with the Australian front row man coming through to salvage sixth, from Chili, Walker, Nannelli, Abe, Haga, Borciani, Bussei, Sanchini and Clementi.

The start of race two proved slightly more chaotic than the earlier affair, with several bikes taking to the grass at the first chicane, and with Cardoso and Viziello coming to grief. Corser led, but went a touch too wide on the exit, letting both Laconi and Kagayama get past. Troy moved back to second at the Roggia, with Kagayama followed by Pitt, Walker, Muggeridge, Vermeulen, Toseland and Chili. Meanwhile, Nannelli had been forced to start from the pitlane.

Pitt passed Kagayama at the Ascari chicane, only for the positions to be reversed along the following back straight, and meanwhile Muggeridge took fifth from Walker. Corser resumed his familiar position when he re-took the lead at turn one of lap two, but the men on the move were Muggeridge and Vermeulen, both moving ahead of Pitt, and with Karl going into fourth ahead of Chris.

As ever, the slipstream effect along the wide and lengthy main straight led to plenty of position changes amongst the lead group. Laconi was back ahead when Corser passed him at turn one, but the Frenchman returned the favour at the second chicane, and would soon set the fastest lap so far. Similarly, the Ten Kate riders swapped places more than a couple of times.

Kagayama passed Corser into the Parabolica, so that the Australian was pushed wide, but Troy was ahead again at turn one, for the time being. Kagayama was second to Laconi when Vermeulen took Corser at turn one, but the Japanese rider soon made a mistake at the fast right-hand Lesmo curves. Going straight on, he ran into the gravel trap, and fell, unable to get going again.

This left Laconi with a small margin up front, from the all-Australian trio of Vermeulen, Corser and Muggeridge. With three laps remaining, the first pair had broken away from the second pair, and Corser passed Muggeridge at turn one, no doubt wanting to catch up and go for another win. But the last lap came down to two men, and Vermeulen made his move at the Roggia chicane. Braking late on the inside, he got the Honda ahead and was able to hold off Laconi to the flag.

Corser held onto third, equalling his worst finish of the season, whilst a close fourth for Muggeridge was his best to date in WSBK. The battle further back had seen Pitt leading Walker and Chili, but with Toseland coming through to lead the whole bunch. This time James could not catch the leaders, but finished fifth as he and Pitt broke away from the rest. Chili was seventh, from Walker, Haga, Nannelli, Bussei, Abe, Sanchini, Conforti and Clementi. Nieto had gone out early with a very visible bike blow up.

Suzuki had taken their unbroken winning streak up to seven, but Chris Vermeulen deservedly took the plaudits when he ended the run and brought Honda back to the top step. Troy Corser’s championship position was strengthen by Yukio Kagayama’s accident, with the 1996 champion on the podium in every race so far, and having scored 182 of a possible 200 points. Régis Laconi bounced back from the disappointment of non-starting at Valencia. The next stop is Silverstone.

Standings after eight races: Corser 182; Kagayama 130; Vermeulen 115; Laconi 87; Pitt 60; Toseland 56; Abe and Walker 54; Haga 52; Chili 44; Neukirchner 41; Muggeridge 38; Bussei 31; Gimbert 26.

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