World Superbike Brands Hatch: Corser 1 & 2 and extends lead, Haga & Yamaha 2 & 1

Martial Garcia, Team Manager, Yamaha Motor France: "Sebastien was one second faster than compared to last year, but so was everyone else, so the gap is still the same. Anyway, we found good setting but in the second race. In the first race we still had some problems. One of the problems is that Sebastien still has some pain in the leg so it was difficult to get good information. Our weekend was not too bad, except for the bad luck suffered by Norick with his crash."

Yamaha’s Andrew Pitt had two strong races at Brands. The Australian qualified alongside Haga on the second row of the grid and made to good starts to run with the group battling for third place, taking a seventh place in race one and improving to sixth in the second outing.

Yamaha Motor France riders Norick Abe and Sèbastien Gimbert had a difficult day in Brands. Abe made two lightning starts but struggled due to a lack of track knowledge, finishing 11th in the opener and retiring after crashing with Steve Martin (Petronas) in the second. Gimbert bagged two points for 14th in race two.

The results see both Yamaha Italia riders move up the championship table. Haga’s 45 point haul takes him to fifth, just five points behind countryman Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki), who occupies fourth, while Pitt moves up to ninth. Championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) left the United Kingdom with an improved advantage. He leads second placed Chris Vermeulen (Honda) by 110 points. Abe slides back to tenth in the standings.

Karl Muggeridge, who had just been passed by the aggressive Haga on lap two, applied too much throttle, and was spat over the top of his machine, cracking a bone in his hand in the ensuing crash.

Muggeridge’s fractured hand is not expected to give any problems for the next round in Assen, but spoiled what was a promising race for Ten Kate’s other Aussie, who was firmly in the leading three until his crash on lap two.

“I’m pretty upset with myself to be honest,” stated the Swiss resident Aussie. “Haga had just passed me on the inside at turn three and I was trying to square of the corner and get back to the next one. I just gave it too much and it spat me off. I think I tried to hold onto it a little to long because I’ve cracked a small bone in my hand.”

Neukirchner had tough weekend in general, qualifying only 17th and missing Superpole.

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