When the lights went out it was Bayliss who launched himself into the lead while Toseland muscled his way into second place from the second row of the grid. It was like the start of a 125 race with four riders abreast, all trying to get into the same turn. Toseland had a big moment with a near high side, this dropped him back leaving him a lot of work to do.
Troy Corser on the Yamaha Italia machine had a short race when he high sided on lap one. He landed in the track and was lucky not to be hit by any on coming riders.
Max Neukirchner on the Yamaha Germany bike was also out of luck on the opening lap as he clipped the back of
Roberto Rolfo and crashed out. Bayliss was leading from Biaggi who had got ahead of Haga with Toseland giving chase.
Ruben Xaus who had been running at the front crashed his Sterilgarda Ducati on lap two ending his race.
The action hotted up on lap three with Bayliss and Biaggi swapping places several times. Biaggi finally out braked Bayliss and shoved his Suzuki under the Ducati rider with force to take the lead.
Biaggi got his head down and started to pull a gap over the battle that was raging for second place. Bayliss had Haga's full attention and on lap six he snatched second place from the Australian. As the race settle down a little Toseland was gradually closing up on Haga and Bayliss. On lap twelve Bayliss was close enough to make a move on Haga and over took him for second but two corners later Haga did exactly the same regaining his position. One lap later Bayliss past him again but ran wide, this mistake let Toseland move in even closer.
The first section of the Vallelunga track is very fast fifth gear corners and this is where Bayliss and Haga continued to rub elbows. Haga had a moment where it looked like the back of the bike was about to come round on him. With Bayliss now in second and Haga having a close call, Toseland was back in the fight for a podium. On lap seventeen Toseland took Haga but he fought back holding off the pushy Brit.
