from Pirelli SBK press

ROUND 1 – DOHA – 23rd  FEBRUARY 2008 – RACE REVIEW

23rd February 2008, Doha (Qatar) – Once more the Losail racetrack presented difficult conditions for the riders to read. The first two days of practice were messed up by the wind moving sand into the racetrack and the track had a lower temperature than expected. Despite some tests made in the last weeks the teams were asked to find a new solution to a new problem, making things even more difficult for those on new bikes. They lost valuable time due to the bad conditions and had to try out many different settings.

Corser had been really fast in all the sessions and took Superpole as well, but the situation was still not completely clear. On Saturday, raceday, the conditions changed again with less wind and warmer temperatures, changing the game once more

Race1:

A great race, entertaining until the very last corner.

At the green light the fastest guy off the line was Neukirchner, followed by Corser and Haga on Yamahas, Biaggi and Xaus on Ducatis, Nieto, Kagayama and then Bayliss behind. This bunch of riders soon created a gap back to followers, despite riders like Rolfo, Checa and Fabrizio being in place.

Different tyre choices were made, particularly on the rear, with a harder compound for Yamaha, medium for Ducati and soft for the Suzuki.

On the sixth lap the first important action took place: Biaggi overtook Haga, who then crashed and rejoined in 25th position. Biaggi then overtook Corser too, and started following Neukirchner and one lap later he took the lead itself.

Behind the Italian, Bayliss moved up to second. The two Ducati were followed by a Yamaha with one lap to go.

Pirelli DIABLO SUPERBIKE tyres played their role at the highest level: Biaggi and Bayliss conducted the whole race with lap times under two minutes and the bikes still seemed to be stable, didn’t move around - and ultimately there was Bayliss, who passed Biaggi with only two corners to go. There was still room for a passing attempt, and Biaggi tried it, but at the end he had to accept second place.

Haga finished 14th thinking already of revenge in race two.

Race2:

Race two was again full of excitement, with Haga and Corser away at full throttle - like in race one - followed by the Ducatis of Biaggi and Xaus and the Suzuki of Nieto.

The two Yamaha couldn’t keep quite the same pace of the others, while Nieto and his Suzuki showed they were in really good shape.

With higher temperatures the tyre choices were slightly different than in race one, and at the end the winner was Nieto on an “A” soft solution at the front and a “B”, medium at the rear. Nieto started from the third row, making a really great race for himself and fighting hard, especially with Biaggi and Xaus, before gaining a famous victory.

The total race time was almost the same as in race one, with an even faster pace set by Nieto: 1’59.156, a new lap record on the third lap.

On the podium with him were Xaus and Biaggi, on Ducatis from the Sterilgarda Go Eleven Team, while Bayliss finished fourth, ahead of his team mate Fabrizio.

There is little time for celebration as the SBK circus is already on the move: tonight most of the teams will leave Qatar to go to Australia, where we are racing next weekend.

Race Standings

Championship Standings