Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) also had a successful raceday, taking two podium finishes in third, and making up ground on long time points leader Troy Bayliss. The Ducati rider fell in race two, without injury, and in doing so scored no points, despite restarting.

Corser now has 290 points to Bayliss`s 369, with Haga equal on points with Max Neukirchner, on 280. The overall result of the Vallelunga weekend is that each Yamaha rider is still capable of winning the championship, with four races and 100 points left.

In the first 24-lap race Haga and Corser were ever-present in the fight for podium places, with long time race leader Haga taking the reward of victory, by 0.129 seconds from Max Biaggi. Corser looked capable of winning himself as he finally made up all the ground he lost in the mid section of the race in the last few laps, but was unable to get close enough to Biaggi to secure second.

Race two was a classic three-way fight in the early laps, with Haga, Corser and Bayliss close together. Later in the race Haga and Bayliss swapped the lead repeatedly, but on the final lap Bayliss crashed and Haga went on to win by 1.5 seconds, from Michel Fabrizio, and Corser, who was another second behind.

Haga continued to use the new Ohlins electronic rear shock for both Vallelunga races, the system worked well for the Yamaha rider, an improvement on the standard shock.

Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) had his best result of the year with an eighth place finish, followed by tenth.

David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) went 17th in race one and ran off on race two, finishing 20th. His team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) retired in race one but scored two points for 14th in race two.

Noriyuki Haga (1st and 1st – Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
“I could hear Biaggi`s bike all the way but my bike was working very well and I am very happy with the result. In race two I had a very big fight with Troy Bayliss, and I am sorry for his crash. But I enjoyed our battle while it lasted. It was a great day today for our team and thanks to all the team and the fans for the reception. For sure we will be pushing hard at the next round, as we did at this one.”