 | ROUND ELEVEN |
Regis Laconi put himself in pole position to win the World Superbike title with a superb double at Imola. But British rider James Toseland stayed in contention by taking a second and third place in the penultimate round to trail his team-mate by four points.
"I'm obviously disappointed to finish second but we're still in the hunt for the championship," said Toseland.
"It's close and there's going to be no love lost. It couldn't have worked out better for the championship."
Laconi, who won the first race by a narrow margin, said he had gone into the second race expecting a battle.
"I knew James would be fast," said Laconi.
"I made a small mistake at the beginning. I had to pass James and I had to be sure we did not make a big crash together."
Chris Vermeulen had gone into the second race on top of the championship standings, but he crashed on the warm-up lap and had to get a lift back to the pits.
The Australian got on his spare Honda and battled through to finish sixth to keep alive his slim hopes of taking the title.
Leading positions, Race 1:
1 Regis Laconi (Fra) Ducati 38mins 58.507secs
2 Chris Vermeulen (Aus) Honda 38:59.629
3 James Toseland (Gbr) Ducati 39:04.145
4 Haga Noriyuki (Jpn) Ducati 39:05.117
5 Garry McCoy (Aus) Ducati 39:10.481
6 Steve Martin (Aus) Ducati 39:18.505
7 Pierfrancesco Chili (Ita) Ducati 39:28.246
8 Marco Borciani (Ita) Ducati 39:28.987
9 Gianluca Nannelli (Ita) Ducati 39:39.718
10 Leon Haslam (Gbr) Ducati 39:46.479
Race 2:
1 Regis Laconi (Fra) Ducati 39:04.926
2 James Toseland (Gbr) Ducati 39:04.967
3 Steve Martin (Aus) Ducati 39:17.278
4 Gianluca Nannelli (Ita) Ducati 39:28.091
5 Garry McCoy (Aus) Ducati 39:33.563
6 Chris Vermeulen (Aus) Honda 39:36.644
7 Lucio Pedercini (Ita) Ducati 39:39.968
8 Marco Borciani (Ita) Ducati 39:44.003
9 Ivan Clementi (Ita) Kawasaki 39:44.266
10 Troy Corser (Aus) Petronas 39:44.579
Championship standings:
1 R Laconi 295pts
2 J Toseland 291
3 C Vermeulen 282
4 N Haga 254
5 P Chili 222
6 G McCoy 185
7 S Martin 170
8 L Haslam 150
9 T Corser 137
10 M Borciani 130
Manufacturers standings:
1 Ducati 480pts
2 Honda 289
3 Petronas 183
4 Kawasaki 118
5 Suzuki 90
6 Yamaha 63
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
