Corser remained close up until lap twelve when an attempt to pass Biaggi down the back long-straight caused him to run wide at Campagnano and allow Checa up into third place. However, the Spaniard's hopes of holding the position ended just a few corners later at Semaford when he too ran wide and allowed Corser back through. Although back to third, Corser had lost significant ground to the leaders.
As such, it was left to Haga and Biaggi to dispute victory, but while the Japanese rider looked typically leery at times, Biaggi's best efforts could only ever see him get slightly alongside.
Building up to a grandstand finish, Biaggi – cheered on by the raucous home crowd – tried everything he could to force a mistake from Haga, but to no avail.
Biaggi's hopes would eventually be dashed by the re-emergence of Corser into the equation with just a handful of laps remaining, the Aussie doing a superb job to catch up again after losing a couple of seconds with his error. Latching onto Biaggi, the Italian was distracted enough to allow Haga to edge the win by a meagre margin, followed closely by Biaggi and Corser.
Further back, fourth place eventually fell to Max Neukirchner, who had been enjoying a quiet race up until the final stages when Bayliss, up to fourth after overtaking Checa, made a mistake and slowed up both himself and the Honda behind him. Neukirchner duly took advantage to leap up from sixth to fourth, while Checa managed to capitalise by claiming back fifth.
Bayliss' sixth means his lead over Corser is down to 95 points, making it more likely that the title will be decided in France. Still, victory in the second race would almost do it for Bayliss, provided he can come back strong.
Michel Fabrizio was a very lonely seventh, although the Italian was almost caught by a flying
Roberto Rolfo, the Althea Racing rider scoring both his and the team's best result of the season after climbing up from 16th in the early stages of the race to claim eighth.
