Double triumph for Haga

Noriyuki Haga's dream world superbike season has continued at Kyalami, with the Japanese star now leading the championship by 85pts after a clean sweep on his factory Ducati.

Haga defeated his teammate Michel Fabrizio in both 24-lap races, which were missing Australia's Troy Corser (BMW), who sat out South Africa's return to the world superbike calendar after taking a battering at Monza the week before.

While Corser was relaced by compatriot Steve Martin, Haga continued to force the issue and now 39 world superbike wins, the third best in the title's 27-year history.

Of the top 10 in that winners' list, Haga and Italian Pierfrancesco Chili are the only riders who haven't won a world superbike title, but Haga is doing his best to remedy that glaring hole in his CV.

Not only is Haga winning regularly, he is a regular podium finisher - 11 times out of 12 races so far in 2009.

After a tight scrap with Fabrizio and Ben Spies (Yamaha) in race one, Haga eventually scored a grinding 0.950sec victory on the technical and energy-sapping Kyalami layout. And in race two, despite the close checking of Fabrizio, he was always in control after the retirement of the hapless Spies with a broken gearshift linkage.

"In the first race, having had some suspension problems during Friday and Saturday, I have to say I didn't expect to be able to keep pace with Michel and Ben," said Haga. "But I made a good start and tried to stick with Michel and then when he appeared to have a small problem, I made my move.

"My arm was not a problem at all during the racing. I must say I was very glad to see there are less birds here at Kyalami than at Monza! In race two we made a small change to the setting of my bike and I felt more comfortable on it, but I knew that Michel was close behind me and in the last laps my braking was suffering, so I had to hold on and am very happy to take another 50pts away with me today and again increase my advantage in the standings."

Meanwhile, with Spies out of luck for the second time in consecutive weeks - he would have won race one at Monza before running out of full on the last corner - he's now lost second place in the title to Fabrizio.

The Italian has moved to 165pts, three ahead of Spies (162pts). Haga is way out in front on 250pts, and well on his way to a maiden world title.

Leon Haslam (116pts) is in fourth, ahead of fellow Briton and Honda pilot Jonathan Rea (106pts), who scored his first podium for the year in race two.

Max Biaggi was fifth in both Kyalami races, as Aprilia continues to impress in its return to world superbike competition.

Meanwhile, it was another miserable weekend for the other WSBK fresh face, BMW, which struggled without the guile and experience of Corser.

Martin was out the points 22nd and 17th, albeit in a part "testing" role, while regular rider Ruben Xaus crashed both times.

Australia's Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) scored some points with 15-14 finishes, but was upstaged by his stand-in teammate, local rider Sheridan Morais (13-11).

"This was a difficult weekend after a top 10 at Monza," Parkes said. "I struggled on the bike and with myself as I'm physically not as fit as I would like, and this track is a lot harder on your body than Monza.

"All in all I knew this was going to be a tough weekend, but we came away with some points for the team which I'm happy about. I could have taken the easy road and sat out these last two races to fully recover but we've been lucky that we've managed to score points in all races.

"I'm happy we've got a two week break before Miller so I can regain some strength and keep up the momentum of getting points and top 10 finishes."

Karl Muggeridge (Suzuki) was 18th in the opener before crashing out of race two, while Adelaide's Brendan Roberts wasn't competing after also coming down hard at Monza.

World supersport was a boon for Irishman Eugene Laverty (Honda), who powered to a four-second lead by lap six, and from then on only had to meter his lead until the finish.

And he did that to perfection, scoring a runaway win from championship leader Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) and Newcastle's Mark Aitchison (Honda), who capitalised on some fairing bashing on the final lap between Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) and Kawasaki's Joan Lascorz.

It was the first world supersport podium for Atchison, who started from eighth on the grid.
 
"It was my luck that I was able to pass Sofuoglu and Lascorz in the last lap, but I  actually put a couple of good laps down in the last few laps, and I was already hoping that I could bridge the gap to them," said Aitchison. I hoped they might get in the way of each other and it worked out that way. Obviously you don't want to get on the podium like that, but at the moment - I'll take it."

Gold Coast's Andrew Pitt (Honda) was a distant sixth, struggling for grip and describing his race "like riding on ice".

Pitt was followed home by compatriots Garry McCoy (Triumph) and Anthony West (Honda).

Round seven, for superbikes only, will be held at Miller Motorsports Park in America from May 28-31.

KYALAMI RESULTS

Superbike race one: 24 laps

1 Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Ducati 39:47.436
2 Michel Fabrizio, Italy, Ducati  +0.950
3 Ben Spies, America, Yamaha +3.391
4 Jonathan Rea, Great Britain, Honda +8.914
5 Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia  +9.019
6 Carlos Checa, Spain, Honda +14.812
7 Shinya Nakano, Japan, Aprilia +14.971
8 Yukio Kagayama, Japan, Suzuki +15.723
9 Shane Byrne, Great Britain, Ducati +21.529
10 Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Yamaha +21.795
15 Broc Parkes, Australia, Kawasaki +40.885
18 Karl Muggeridge, Australia, Suzuki +49.702
22 Steve Martin, Australia, BMW + 2 laps

22 finishers, 2 DNFs
Fastest lap and founding record: Fabrizio - 1:38.548

Superbike race two: 24 laps

1 Haga 39:45.027
2 Fabrizio +0.322
3 Rea +8.936
4 Leon Haslam, Great Britain, Honda +10.561
5 Biaggi +10.767
6 Checa +12.413
7 Nakano +12.616
8 Kagayama +14.878
9 Sykes +16.225
10 Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic, Ducati +18.197
14 Parkes +38.747
17 Martin +1:28.685
DNF Muggeridge +23 laps

19 finishers, 5 DNFs
Fastest lap: Haga - 1:38.577

Superbike standings (after round 6 of 14):

1 Haga 250
2 Fabrizio 165
3 Spies 162
4 Haslam 116
5 Rea 106
6= Biaggi 103
6= Sykes 103
8 Regis Laconi, France, Ducati 77
9 Max Neukirchner, Germany, Suzuki 75
10 Checa 73
17 Troy Corser, Australia, BMW 35
18 Parkes 20
23 Muggeridge 4
24 Brendan Roberts, Australia, Ducati 3

Supersport race: 23 laps

1 Eugene Laverty, Ireland, Honda  39:06.061
2 Cal Crutchlow, Great Britain, Yamaha +2.546
3 Mark Aitchison, Australia, Honda  +17.358
4 Joan Lascorz, Spain, Kawasaki  +17.454
5 Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, Honda +18.221
6 Andrew Pitt, Australia, Honda +20.561
7 Garry McCoy, Australia, Triumph +33.141
8 Anthony West, Australia, Honda +37.326
9 Michele Pirro, Italy, Yamaha +37.728
10 Matthieu Lagrive, France, Yamaha +37.939
18 Russell Holland, Australia, Honda +1:11.042

Current supersport standings (after round 6 of 13)

1 Crutchlow 119
2 Laverty 106
3 Sofuoglu 83
4 Pitt 64
5= West 60
5= Lascorz 60
7 Aitchison 50
8 Fabien Foret, France, Yamaha 44
9 Pirro 40
10 Lagrive 31
11 McCoy 29

For the full suite of results, as well as standings, click here.