With the top four running so close together, there was always the threat of something going wrong and it duly happened at the start of the fifth lap when Bayliss and Corser ran wide at turn one, allowing Haga through into the lead and Neukirchner up into second place. Indeed, Bayliss was particularly caught out by the melee when his attempts to recover third at turn two instead saw him slip behind
Carlos Checa in fifth.
It was clear which bike had the advantage though and when Corser got back past Neukirchner on lap seven, he set off in search of Haga.
Quickly catching up, Corser shadowed Haga all the way until the start of lap ten when he moved into the lead, only for the Japanese rider to come back at him a lap later. Corser wasn't finished though and went back through with a daring move at the Veedol Chicane, only to run wide and allow Haga back into the lead.
Continuing to match Haga's every move, Corser made what looked like the decisive move for the lead at the start of lap 16 and began to pull away, only for the red flag to be shown and the standings at the end of the previous lap being classed as the results.
Although it remains to be seen whether Corser would have held on for victory with his move, Haga's double win is ideal for the Yamaha Italia team as it sees him get straight back into the championship fight. He is now back up to fourth, just four points adrift of Neukirchner.
Although not the result he was hoping for, Neukirchner still recorded his second podium of the day to keep himself in the mix, while Bayliss recovered to fourth having been running as low as sixth when he suffered a bizarre mid-race lull. The Australian has extended his championship lead slightly to 39 points over Checa, who could only manage fifth after losing out to his rival in the closing stages.
The Ducati trio of
Michel Fabrizio, Max Biaggi and
Ruben Xaus were sixth, seventh and eighth, while
Fonsi Nieto finished an anonymous weekend in ninth, ahead of
Regis Laconi on the best Kawasaki.
Ryuichi Kiyonari was 11th, ahead of
Karl Muggeridge,
Makoto Tamada, Gregorio Lavilla and David Checa.
