"Once I was leading the race I concentrated hard. I wanted to record some fast laps and not make any mistakes," said Tamada. "As soon as I looked up at the pitboard again and saw I had a three-second lead I knew I had won the race. I'm really happy and I hope everybody in the world remembers my name now."
Tamada's team is managed by Tady Okada, last year's team-mate to
Colin Edwards at Castrol Honda. Okada commented: "This is the first win for me as a team manager and it's nice to be on the podium again. Tamada was really good in that second race and made me very proud."
Runner-up Edwards was pleased to have reduced the points deficit to Bayliss in the championship from 45 at the start of the day to 24. The American has now taken more podium finishes than any other rider this year with seven from the eight races so far.
Edwards said: "I'm amazed at the pace this year. Today's races were about 20 seconds faster than last year's and it's the same everywhere. It's a credit to the series and to the tyre manufacturers.
"In the first race my rear tyre was sliding with about four laps left so when I found myself in third chasing Hodgson I knew I'd have to make my move before that point of the second race. Once I was in second I tried to put one clean lap together and catch Tamada but he was gone, it was hopeless. After that I just started thinking about blocking and protecting second place."
Hodgson improved to third place his best finish of the year to move into third place in the championship. Bayliss passed Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa and his Ducati team-mate Ben Bostrom to take fourth with Haga fifth.
