Third place went to the popular Italian, Max Biaggi on the Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki who was keen to get a podium finish at the famous Italian round.
Britain's
James Toseland was very much the loser due to a tyre gamble. He opted to run a soft tyre which didn't go the full race distance and this left him going from the race lead to fourth place. His team-mate
Roberto Rolfo had a similar problem that relegated him from a podium finish to seventeenth place.
“I'm very happy with result, this is our home round and I never win here. At the beginning I make a mistake and am in sixth or seventh. I enjoy the battle and at the middle of the race I push and win. I would like to do the double but need to calculate the race,” said Haga after race one.
Bayliss' team-mate
Lorenzo Lanzi ran straight on at the first chicane and it was a very close call as Bayliss explained, “Monza has lots of straights but it is very physical. Lorenzo had a close call at the first turn, it was lucky it wasn't a disaster, but I got caught up in it and ended up down in seventh. I made a few good moves and pushed hard. I couldn't believe it when I saw James' tyre was destroyed. We used the hardest tyre in that race and it was moving around so we will have to make some changes for race two.”
Off the line it was Rolfo who took the hole shot from
Yukio Kagayama with Toseland in third place. On lap two Toseland pushed by his team-mate for the lead while further down the field Haga was on the move and up to third place. Not happy with third Haga ducked under Rolfo for second but Rolfo took it straight back at the Parabolica. Haga made a move again on Rolfo along the main straight and this time made it stick, he now had Toseland well and truly in this sights.
Lap four and Haga was into the lead but he had a moment and Toseland pounced to regain his lead. Haga slip streamed him on the straight but Toseland got him at the fiddly first chicane, Haga fought back at Ascari only to have Toseland re pass him at Parabolica.
