SBK Monza: Precious points for Nakatomi

Shinichi Nakatomi had two good races on the Circuit of Monza, but it was not easy for him because his right hand was still hurting from a practice crash.

During the first race, there was a beautiful fight between Neukirchner (Suzuki), Haga (Yamaha), Bayliss (Ducati) and Kagayama (Suzuki). Finally, Neukirchner from Germany won his first ever race in the Superbike World Championship. Nakatomi was brilliant, but unfortunately a rider in front of him blew up his engine and sent some oil toward him. The Japanese managed to cross the finish line in 13th position, which is his second best result of this year after his 11th place in Valencia.

Nice fight in the second race between Haga (Yamaha), Neukirchner (Suzuki), Kiyonari (Honda) and Bayliss (Ducati), but the Australian leader of the championship had to retire because of a technical problem. Like last year in Monza, Haga won the race, this time in front of Neukirchner and Kiyonari. Good race for Nakatomi who finished 12th and scored precious points for the championship.

Shinichi Nakatomi: “We changed the settings on the bike to make it easier. I made a mistake and lost positions in race one. In race two I had a good start but after five laps the rear tyre started to drop off. So we need to work on the electronics and the suspension to balance this.”

Martial Garcia (team-manager): “Nakatomi lost some ground during race 1 when Badovini broke his engine in front of him and he received some oil on his helmet. Happily, his hand did not hurt too much. In race 2, he finished 26 seconds behind the winner, which is a small gap. This 12th position is good for us because we are now closer to the 10th place, which is our ambition.

Race 1:

1-Neukirchner (Suzuki), 2-Haga (Yamaha), 3-Bayliss (Ducati), 4-Kagayama (Suzuki), 5-Biaggi (Ducati)…13-Nakatomi (Yamaha)

Race 2:

1- Haga (Yamaha), 2- Neukirchner (Suzuki), 3-Kiyonari (Honda), 4-Nieto (Suzuki), 5-Fabrizio (Ducati) …12-Nakatomi (Yamaha)

Superbike World Championship standings:

1-Bayliss (Ducati) 194 points, 2-Checa (Honda) 116, 3-Haga (Yamaha) 112, 4- Neukirchner (Suzuki) 111, 5-Nieto (Suzuki) 107…20-Nakatomi (Yamaha) 16

6th round of the Superbike World Championship: June 1st, Miller Motorsport Park (Utah / USA)