Haga does the double

Noriyuki Haga has made it a double win at Brands Hatch World Superbikes after taking the top spot in a dramatic race 2 despite not crossing the line first.

The second superbike race of the day was stopped after only three laps when PSG-1 Ducati rider Giancarlo De Matteis crashed dramatically and had to be stretchered off the track.

Once the track was clear officials decided to restart the race with aggregate times so the grid was reformed in race order and the riders had time added to their final race time depending how far behind the leader they were when the race was stopped. So despite a dramatic effort from Chili to cross the line first it was Haga that got the podium once the extra time was added.

Just two corners in to the restarted race, Troy Corser turned in on top of Toseland taking them both out of the race. Toseland had a lucky call with the restart. His engine had blown on lap three but the grid positions are taken at the end of the last full lap so he was allowed to rejoin the race. But in the rush for the corner he was clipped Corser didn’t see him coming up underneath him and turned in in front of him, knocking Toseland to the floor and taking them both in to the gravel.

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The head of the race continued as before though with Laconi and Haga repeating race one to battle it out for the lead while Chris Vermeulen and Frankie Chili fought for third.

Haga took the lead from Laconi on lap five and it took Laconi another five laps to sneak back past at Paddock hill bend.

By lap 12 the two leaders had upped the pace so much that Vermeulen couldn’t keep up and he started to drop back letting Chili slip through to chase Haga and Laconi.

Lap 14 saw Haga push past Laconi again but Laconi once agin took him back at Paddock. Two laps later Haga amazingly tried to go round the outside of Laconi at Paddock, cutting across on top of him and nearly taking them both out.

The move pushed the Japanese rider wide letting Chili through into second but it didn’t last for long as Haga barged past on the next corner, shortly before Laconi pushed that little bit too hard, loosing the front tyre and sliding out of the lead and in to the gravel.

After crashing out in race one Chili had a point to prove and with just one lap to go he made an amazing move on Haga, overtaking him on the outside of Clearways as the corner opens out on to the home straight.

But the move came too late for him to open up the 1.2 second advantage that he needed to beat Haga on the aggregate time so despite Chili crossing the line in first place, the top spot on the podium was given to Haga with Chili in second and Vermeulen in third.

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Positions: Haga, Chili, Vermeulen, Walker, Ellison, Bussei, McCoy, Coxhell, Gimbert, Sanchini, Clementi, Bontempi, Fuertes, Velini, Praia

DNF: Laconi, Martin, Nowland, Borciani, Pedercini, Nanelli, Corser, Toseland, De Matteis, Haslam

Championship positions:

LACONI

218

VERMEULEN

216

HAGA

212

TOSELAND

210

CHILI

180

MCCOY

155

MARTIN

135

HASLAM

120

CORSER

112

WALKER

102

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