Spies and Rea victorious at Misano

Troy Corser's tortured world superbike season has continued, with the BMW rider failing to score any points in a day of high drama at Misano.

After a promising build-up, things just didn't go right for the Australian on Sunday, with the two 24-lappers won by American Ben Spies (Yamaha) and Briton Jonathan Rea (Honda).

The opening race was the first ever 'flag-to-flag' event in world superbike, which saw the riders start on a wet track, but then taking the flag in the dry.

Corser, still riding with an injured shoulder, didn't even get to the "dry" part after high-siding on the warm-up lap, with the bike's errant electronics the likely cause.

Then halfway through the 24-lapper, which had been totally dominated by British privateer Shane Byrne (Ducati), a flurry of pit stops began with the entire field changing bikes and tyres.

After all the hustle and bustle, Spies was the rider who judged things to perfection, and he went onto score an easy eight-second victory over the gritty Byrne, with Italy's Michel Fabrizio just holding fellow Ducati rider Jakub Smrz out for third.

A day earlier, Smrz had become the first rider to break Spies' 2009 monopoly on pole position.

Corser's teammate Ruben Xaus also led the opening race for a few laps before he was hit with a ride-through penalty for speeding down pitlane during his changeover. The sanction extinguished BMW's hopes of a maiden world superbike podium.

In race two, back on a dry track, Corser was a lowly 19th on a machine that simply didn't feel comfortable from the get-go. He only remained on track to gather more data ahead of the next round at Donington this weekend.

Spies was another to feel the heat, with a clutch problem dropping him way back to 17th in the early stages before he sliced back through the field to finish a respectable ninth.

Spies is now 44pts behind championship leader Noriyuki Haga (Ducati), who fought out a stirring three-way fight with Rea and Fabrizio in race two.

Haga, who was fifth in race one, led early before Rea took over the front-running on the ever-improving Honda.

It was then Fabrizio's turn to show his hand in front of his home crowd, but it wasn't to be a fairytale when Rea annexed back the lead on the final lap and became the eighth Briton to win a world superbike race.

"I just want to thank the whole crew… for working so hard to help make this happen," said Rea. "It really bodes well for us all for the rest of the season. We knew we had the pace this weekend, but race one was a pretty bad situation.

"Race two was great and, as soon as I knew I had the pace to match the two Ducatis I was comfortable. I tried a few different lines in the closing laps to probe and find the best way through. When I got past Fabrizio, it was pretty straightforward.

"It's really nice to win here in Italy, in Ducati's back yard, where we thought it would be quite hard. But we've come on leaps and bounds recently and hopefully we can fight at the front in every race."

Rea was seventh in race one, but only after his No. 1 one machine developed a fuel problem on the sighting lap and he was given a ride back to the pits by his teammate, Ryuichi Kiyonari.

However, both riders were given a ride-through penalty for contravening regulations, a punishment compounded by Rea being denied access to the grid on his spare machine.

He was forced to start the warm-up lap from pit lane and the race from the back of the grid.

Smrz and Carlos Checa (Honda) were fourth and fifth in race two, just ahead of Byrne.

Australia's Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) finished with a pair of 17th places.

In supersport, Anthony West (Honda) is now the leading Australian in fifth position after world champion Andrew Pitt (Honda) crashed out on lap two.

Six laps later, Pitt's teammate Kenan Sofuoglu also fell, bringing out the red flag. The race was then restarted, with Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) defeating Eugene Laverty (Honda) by only 0.263secs on aggregate.

Italian Massimo Roccoli (Honda) was third, with two Aussies in the top 10: Mark Aitchison (Honda) in fifth, and West seventh. Garry McCoy (Triumph) retired with mechanical problems.

Crutchlow (160pts) and Laverty (148) are now well clear of Sofuoglu (108), followed by Joan Lascorz (86), who was fourth at Misano on his Kawasaki. Then it's West (75pts) and Pitt (73).

Round nine will be held at Donington this weekend.

Misano superbike results

Race one: 24 laps

1 Ben Spies, America, Yamaha 45:02.773
2 Shane Byrne, Great Britain, Ducati +7.931
3 Michel Fabrizio, Italy, Ducati +11.836
4 Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic, Ducati  +11.886
5 Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Ducati +31.670
6 Yukio Kagayama, Japan, Suzuki +33.241
7 Jonathan Rea, Great Britain, Honda +35.772
8 Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Yamaha +41.931
9 Shinya Nakano, Japan, Aprilia +51.507
10 Matthieu Lagrive, France, Honda +59.921
17 Broc Parkes, Australia, Kawasaki  +1:42.964
DNF Troy Corser, Australia, BMW +24 laps

Fastest lap: Smrz  -- 1:38.679

Race two: 24 laps

1 Rea 39:11.204
2 Fabrizio +0.063
3 Haga +0.457
4 Smrz +3.635
5 Carlos Checa, Spain, Honda +4.460
6 Byrne +4.538
7 Sykes +12.679
8 Leon Haslam, Great Britain, Honda +12.763
9 Spies +13.237
10 Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia +14.412
17 Parkes +31.887
19 Corser +38.061

Fastest lap and new record: Haga - 1:37.135 (previous record: Corser - 1:37.580)

Superbike standings (after round 8 of 14):

1 Haga 292
2 Spies 244
3 Fabrizio 237
4 Rea 167
5 Biaggi 135
6 Haslam 134
7 Sykes 130
8 Checa 109
9 Smrz 108
10 Ryuichi Kiyonari, Japan, Honda 98
17 Corser 36
18 Parkes 25
26 Karl Muggeridge, Australia, Suzuki 4
27 Brendan Roberts, Australia, Ducati 3

Misano supersport results: 22 laps

1 Cal Crutchlow, Great Britain, Yamaha 36:51.032
2 Eugene Laverty, Ireland, Honda +0.263
3 Massimo Roccoli, Italy, Honda +16.289
4 Joan Lascorz, Spain, Kawasaki Andrew Pitt, Australia, Honda +20.894
5 Mark Aitchison, Australia, Honda +21.615
6 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan, Kawasaki  +22.272
7 Anthony West, Australia, Honda Fabien Foret, France, Yamaha +25.094
8 Fabien Foret, France, Yamaha +26.374
9 Gianluca Nannelli, Italy, Triumph +34.558
10 Miguel Praia, Portugal, Honda +49.578
DNF Garry McCoy, Australia, Triumph +11 laps
DNF Andrew Pitt, Australia, Honda + 20 laps

Current supersport standings (after round 8 of 13)

1 Crutchlow 160
2 Laverty 146
3 Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, Honda 108
4 Lascorz 86
5 West 75
6 Pitt 73
7 Foret 63
8 Aitchison 65
9 Michele Pirro, Italy, Yamaha 48
10 Roccoli 39
12 McCoy 39

For full results and standings, click here.