Noriyuki Haga appears resigned to fighting for second place in the 2008 World Superbike championship after haemorrhaging further points to
Troy Bayliss at Brno on Sunday.
While Haga has taken four race wins this season, a numbered bettered only by Baylisstic's seven, he has also suffered more than his fair share of bad luck, accidents and injuries.
And Haga, who warned before the Czech Republic round that 'we cannot lose any more points', did just that on Sunday.
The Yamaha Italia rider rose from a lowly twelfth on the grid to take sixth in race one, before machine problems saw a pit lane start
en route to seventh place in race two. Bayliss won both races.
"In race one my qualifying position did not help me, but I caught up to pass Neukirchner at the end and got some points," said Nori. "I'm not sure what was the problem with the bike in race two but the engine was not working right and I had to swap my bike. We swapped some settings from race one to race two on that spare bike and it worked quite well. I enjoyed the race because I had to make many passes, which was very exciting."
"There is nothing obviously wrong with Nori's bike in race two, we will find out in the workshop, and he rode really well from a start in pitlane, passing many riders because his race pace was very good," said team manager Massimo Meregalli. "With a normal start he would be in front."
Bayliss has now increased his advantage over Haga to 99 points - with 250 remaining - although Haga, who remains fifth in the championship, is within 20 points of Max Neukirchner and second position.
"I hope from this point on we can work in a good direction until the end of the year and improve our championship position," said the 2007 title runner-up.
Haga's team-mate
Troy Corser finished second and fourth at Brno and has climbed to third in the world championship.
