'Blank' Haga smokes to knife-edge victory.

The fender problem - which occurred sporadically during the second half of the second race - was caused by the Yamaha Italia team shortening the wheelbase of Haga's R1.

"His fender was touching his wheel and that was why we saw smoke coming from his machine a couple of times," confirmed Yamaha Italia team manager Massimo Meregalli. "We were all worried it was something else at one stage! We made the machine shorter between races and it seemed that the tyre was rubbing, but only sometimes."

Indeed, the smoke initially looked like a terminal engine problem and Nori's nearest rivals later admitted they expected the Japanese to break down at any moment, but soon realised that the #41 wasn't going to disappear that easily.

Haga had narrowly lost out to first-time winner Max Neukirchner in race one, when he claimed that the German's Suzuki seemed overwhelming powerful.

"I tried so many times to push but it was difficult to pass Max, but anyway I really enjoyed the race," he had said. "It was very close but in the straights it seems like my engine is a 250cc and Max has 1200cc! We will have to try and look for some more horses in race two!"

More horsepower between races wasn't possible, but Haga and his crew did make some important set-up changes.

"I couldn't change anything for the engine but we had a team meeting and we altered the chassis settings and suspension for race two. We got a better feeling and I could push everywhere," said Nori.

Haga was in contention for race two victory almost from the start, taking the lead on lap three of 18. But as the race reached its closing stages Haga had more than just Neukirchner to content with, fellow Japanese Ryuichi Kiyonari having ridden the best race of his young WSBK career to catch and pass the top two by the time the trio charged for the do-or-die final turn.

"On that last lap I was thinking about what I had to do to win, my head was totally blank. I just knew I had to keep in front of everyone. I tried to brake hard into the last corner and then passed Kiyonari. I couldn't believe the gap, 0.009 seconds," admitted Haga.

Haga's mind may have been blank, but he'd pulled off a race winning move by cutting neatly under Kiyonari at the apex of the Parabolica - not only taking the lead but forcing the Ten Kate Honda rider to briefly readjust his line, preventing him from slipstreaming back past on the run to the flag.

However, Neukirchner had made a perfect exit and the German swept past Kiyonari on the run to the line - and almost beat Haga as well. It was the fifth closest finish in WSBK history and the top three were covered by just 0.051secs.

"Monza is special for me, here is our home track and I have been thinking for all last week that I must win," said Haga. "I am really happy today because everybody in the garage made a good job, so my thanks go to them."

Haga's 2-1 Monza finishes have propelled the 2007 title runner-up to third in the championship, although 82 points from Troy Bayliss, who retired with an engine problem in race two.