Haga wants '07 repeat, Corser 8 out of 10.

Riders Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser are both have a proven record at Monza, in races and Superpole, with Haga looking to repeat his double win of one year ago after finishing just two of the last four races.

The Japanese star's 2007 double effectively marked the start of a title charge that took him to within two points of James Toseland by the season finale, but Haga faces a much even tougher challenge in 2008.

Noriyuki Haga (JPN) in costume, Yamaha Motor Italia, Yamaha YZF R1, 41
2007 Superbike World Champio
Noriyuki Haga (JPN) in costume, Yamaha Motor Italia, Yamaha YZF R1, 41…
© Graeme Brown

Riders Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser are both have a proven record at Monza, in races and Superpole, with Haga looking to repeat his double win of one year ago after finishing just two of the last four races.

The Japanese star's 2007 double effectively marked the start of a title charge that took him to within two points of James Toseland by the season finale, but Haga faces a much even tougher challenge in 2008.

Haga will start this weekend a massive 111 points behind Troy Bayliss, having been just 27 points from Toseland at the same point last season.

"The Monza race is very special and important for us all," said Nori ahead of this weekend's Italian encounter. "Last year was great. I set a super lap of 1min 44.941secs in Superpole and won both races. As you probably know by now our Yamaha Motor Italia base is very close to the Monza circuit, so many friends and fans come along to cheer me. My aim for Monza will be to repeat the same fantastic result as last year. The competition is even harder this year so my aim will be not so easy, but I will try to get as many points as possible."

Although still chasing a debut R1 victory, Troy Corser's championship position is looking more healthy. The double world champion heads to Monza third in the standings, 89 points behind countryman Bayliss and 19 from Ten Kate Honda's Carlos Checa.

"We have had some small problems in the past races but as far as the season goes I would say we can mark ourselves as eight out of 10," declared the Australian, who won for Suzuki at Monza in 2005. "Although I haven't won a race yet I am still sort of up there in the championship standings, in third right now. My form is good and my motivation is still high and I just try as hard as I can to win races.

"I like Monza, there are many Yamaha supporters at Monza and it is our team's home race. The track itself is different from all the others on the calendar. We need to have the bike set-up for hard braking after the long and fast straights and there will be a lot of slipstreaming involved. Overtaking options are limited around there, mainly on braking. It was really wet for our recent test there but we did do some traction control testing," he added.

Indeed, the two-day Monza test virtually washed out by torrential rain, and thus Monza will be something of a clean sheet for everyone.

"As we do for all the others tracks, we will prepare one bike using our 2007 race specifications and the other will be pretty close to what we ran in the previous race," said Haga's crew chief Silvano Galbusera. "So, one bike will be the Assen race bike, with harder suspension, and one will be set the same as last year's Monza machine. Unfortunately, we had no real feedback from the Monza test we had last month because of the weather. The geometry, rake, trail and other chassis settings will start out the same as last year. It's easy for us to start from the 2007 spec, because it seemed to work well for Nori last year.

"The main differences we have compared to 2007 are special engine parts, for top end power, some more options we have are rear suspension linkages and one alternative swingarm, which has different rigidity," he revealed. "Of course, at Monza the engine is very important, because the rider has to hold full throttle for a long time. A powerful engine is something you must have if you want to fight for the podium. During the Monza race weekend we'll test some new engine parts that should help the riders to go faster than last year.

"Monza has only a few corners, but all of them are very important. After each corner there is a long, long straight. In my opinion one of the most important is the Parabolica. Going in faster and keeping the speed up through the corner allows riders to score good lap-times. It can make the difference between a good high speed and a fantastic one at the end of the pit straight. For this, I think, we should work on the suspension and the bikes' geometry in order to give our riders the possibility to be as fast as possible around this long corner," he concluded.

First qualifying takes place at Monza on Friday afternoon.

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