After yesterday’s Superpole Noriyuki Haga said “It doesn’t matter about qualifying.
My priority is the races, to win twice on Sunday.
We have a good package so I hope we can do that” and went on to prove it in Race 1 at Valencia.
Starting in 3rd place on the grid, the Samurai of Slide took a powerful win and while was at it also broke Neil Hodgson’s 2003 Valencia WSBK race lap record and leaving the rest of pack to fight over the crumbs with his 3.
677 second lead.
Ben Spies loosing his front crashed on the tenth lap while he was 3rd trying to catch up to Alstare Suzuki rider Neukirchner and Haga and Michel Fabrizio who had a bad start caught Neukirchner with 3 laps to go and came in second.
A notable mention goes to French rider Regis Lagoni on his satellite Ducati who took a fantastic 4th.
Ten seconds behind Laconi, Leon Haslam (Stiggy Honda) took fifth position, ahead of Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki), with Tom Sykes (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia) who started from 17th and 18th on the grid finished in seventh and eighth.
Shane Byrne on his Sterilgarda Ducati took ninth, Broc Parkes tenth on his Paul Bird-run factory Kawasaki.
Ex- MotoGP rider John Hopkins finished his first WSBK race in eleventh position on a Stiggy Honda.
The DNF list included besides Spies, were Troy Corser , Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa and another five riders.
Race 1 Results1 41 Haga N.
(JPN) Ducati 1098R 36′44.
766 (150,408 kph)2 84 Fabrizio M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R 3.
6773 76 Neukirchner M.
(GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 3.
9594 55 Laconi R.
(FRA) Ducati 1098R 4.
2105 91 Haslam L.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 13.
8246 71 Kagayama Y.
(JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 14.
5627 66 Sykes T.
(GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 15.
1558 3 Biaggi M.
(ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 16.
3169 67 Byrne S.
(GBR) Ducati 1098R 20.
36110 23 Parkes B.
(AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 23.
87811 121 Hopkins J.
(USA) Honda CBR1000RR 30.
90212 9 Kiyonari R.
(JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 31.
29813 111 Xaus R.
(ESP) BMW S1000 RR 32.
66014 100 Tamada M.
(JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 42.
15615 33 Hill T.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 43.
04016 31 Muggeridge K.
(AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 45.
20417 86 Badovini A.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 52.
02318 99 Scassa L.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 52.
47419 25 Salom D.
(ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 55.
77520 15 Baiocco M.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 56.
202RET 7 Checa C.
(ESP) Honda CBR1000RRRET 94 Checa D.
(ESP) Yamaha YZF R1RET 24 Roberts B.
(AUS) Ducati 1098RRET 19 Spies B.
(USA) Yamaha YZF R1RET 77 Iannuzzo V.
(ITA) Honda CBR1000RRRET 88 Resch R.
(AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9RET 96 Smrz J.
(CZE) Ducati 1098RRET 11 Corser T.
(AUS) BMW S1000 RRRET 65 Rea J.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR