2007 SBK Corona Extra World SuperBike Championship Round 1 Doha, Qatar, 24th Febuary Race Report

  MAX BIAGGI AND JAMES TOSELAND SHARE A RACE WIN EACH IN THE DESERT

Max Biaggi (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) and James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) powered to a win and second place apiece at Losail, after two terrific 18-lap races under the hot Qatar sun. In a surprising raceday development 2006 World Champion Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) was only fifth and eighth, not recovering from a disappointing qualifying seesion and superpole.

Race One. Max Biaggi's astonishing victory was an impressive introduction in World Superbikes, winning at the first attempt and only finding one rider, second place man James Toseland, able to push him and his overall race package right to the end. Third place Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) was some 13 seconds down, with the second Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra machine of Yukio Kagayama fourth.

Race Two. James Toseland did not have to wait long for the dream first race win of the weekend he desired scoring the race two victory after a front - running performance in near flawless form. Max Biaggi closed in on the final laps, but James Toseland held on to score the win thus 45 points in total, sharing the championship lead with Max Biaggi - although Toseland is shown at top of the standings because his race win came most recently. In third place, superpole winner Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia) did not have any repetition of the tyre fitment trouble he had in race one, when he was ninth and finished third on his R1, some eleven seconds from race winner Toseland.

WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP

A crash while leading dropped 2005 and 2006 World Supersport Champion Sebastien Charpentier (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) out of the points entirely, and allowed his closely following team-mate Kena Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) to secure the first WSS race of 2007. Riding a new Honda this season, Sofuoglu was some 3.4 seconds up on second place rider, and pole man Kevin Curtain (Yamaha SSP Racing). A good start from the leading three riders meant that third place man Katsuaki Fujiwara (Althea Honda) was too far back to make any real impression on the podium, until Charpentier fell and pushed the Japanese rider upto third. It was nonetheless a good weekend in general for Fujiwara and his team. Fabien Foret and Pere Riba (both Gil Kawasaki) raced to the line to battle for fourth place, with the frenchman, who survived a brake induced crash in the morning warm-up largely unscathed, just beating Riba in a near photo finish. The top Ducati was that of Gianluca Nannelli (Carrachi Ducati SC) in eighth place, with Barry Veneman (Hoegee Suzuki) the top 600cc Suzuki rider in ninth place. Only 24 riders finished from 36 starters.

ROUND TWO OF THE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP IS AT PHILIP ISLAND IN AUSTRALIA ON SUNDAY MARCH 4TH.