Max Takes Another Double at Monza

An outstanding weekend of action at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, played out in front of 115,000 people, culminated in a remarkable double win for Max Biaggi and his Aprilia Alitalia team, and pulled Max up to within three points of championship leader Leon Haslam (Alstare Suzuki). Biaggi made some radical changes to his rear suspension after his race one win and eventually ran out the clear winner of race two. This was Max's second double of the year, the first coming in Portimao.

Race One
Biaggi scored the race one win with a well-judged front running ride, albeit with several riders for company through all 18 laps. He kept his pace and consistency on his vee four machine to lead Yamaha Sterilgarda duo James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow across the line, finishing 0.247 seconds ahead of Toseland. Leon Haslam was only 0.958 seconds behind Biaggi, in fourth, with Leon Camier, Biaggi's team-mate, fifth. Ruben Xaus (BMW) was sixth, Michel Fabrizio seventh for Ducati Xerox. Troy Corser went eighth and Tom Sykes ninth on his Kawasaki Racing Team machine.

Max Biaggi: "That was a special result, because it is special to win at Monza and because this is a special track with a very high top speed. We worked very hard for this race weekend so it was a perfect performance by all the team. The Yamaha guys running together means they could be quicker than me in the final lap but we held it together and took our first win here at Monza."

James Toseland: "Another second place, it's a bit frustrating, but it was a good strong race. I want to congratulate the team for getting two bikes on the podium. Congratulations to Max, he didn't put a foot wrong. On that last lap I was hoping he was going to make a slight mistake to allow me to get alongside but he didn't. They were strong round here, but we're getting better all the time, but as I said second and third all the time is a bit frustrating."

Cal Crutchlow: "I felt like I put together a solid race, but we never got the best of starts again, the bike is hard to get off the line, but all credit to Yamaha, we came to their home round and second and third for me and James is a strong result. We knew we would struggle a bit for speed, but to be honest I struggled throughout with gear shifting, I had a leaky engine oil cover. I was struggling to change gear up the box, but I feel I rode well."

Race Two
Biaggi took his second win of the day in fine style after closest challenger Crutchlow suffered an oil leak and crashed. Max's eventually clear win, by 4.5 seconds from Leon Haslam, was an important one and sends the WSB paddock to Kyalami confident of more close action between this year's two most consistently fast riders. Haslam now has 181 points to Biaggi's 178 as he struggled with a sore wrist from a couple of hairy moments in the second race. Third place for Troy Corser was a historic first podium for BMW in WSB racing, in only the second season of full-on competition for the S 1000RR in the production-based series. Corser is now seventh in the championship. Leon Camier was a lonely fourth for Aprilia in race two and an aggressive fifth from Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes rounded out a day of new high points for many riders and teams. James Toseland was taken to hospital to have a CT scan after suffering concussion in a high-speed crash, with Jonathan Rea spraining his ankle and Ruben Xaus escaping the turn one collision without injury. In contrast to Biaggi's great day some leading lights suffered in the final analysis, with Carlos Checa 14th and 11th in the races, as he ties for fourth place on 110 points with Rea, who did not score today. Toseland is fifth on 106, Haga sixth on 100.

Max Biaggi: "This track is very long and it's very easy to make a little mistake plus when you have your rhythm you stay with it, and it's difficult to go faster and easier to go slower. Anyway I'm happy with the result, it was a close race. I'm happy for me and my team. It's an unbelievable result, it looks like we are achieving our goal. Here there is also the President of our group and it's been a great weekend for everyone."

Leon Haslam: "We had a few big moments in that race and I'm nursing my wrist because one of them sent me off the back of the bike when I was with Max and Cal at the time. This weekend's been tough, we've been a little bit down on speed, which is unlike the Suzuki, but the boys have worked fantastic. To get on the podium here in Monza is always special so I'm really happy for that. The battle for the title is definitely closing in, we knew Max was going to be strong here, but hopefully we can get back to our winning ways because each race is getting tougher and tougher."

Troy Corser: "I'm so happy, the team has put a lot of hard work into the project not just this year but last year and sometimes it's been difficult and frustrating. But this weekend we've worked really hard and have been progressively getting better and better, just struggling a bit with braking, but we made a change for the second race and it made the bike easier to stop. We had the speed, our bike was as fast as anything out there, and it just took me a few laps to get used to the brakes in the second race. Thanks to all the boys at BMW, it's been a long time coming, let's hope it's not going to be the last one!"