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;-.~. ~ -.".'. -~..-: ~, : -~. _'''0 ::~ ~ _ • -.--.J World Superbike Championship " - road race' ___ ~ I __ _ _ __ Round 5: Monza, Italy Lucio Pederelnl (30) and Eric Bostrom (32) do batUe In the first race. Bostrom had a successful afternoon In Monza, finishing ninth and _nth In his first visit to the italian circuit. 10-second stop-and-go penalty would be imposed if you cut out the chicane. On the last lap, I didn't really try to get by Troy because, as far as I was concerned, I only had to worry about Chili getting past me. It turns out that the penalty wasn't imposed. I'm disappointed, but I can't take anything away from everybody else because they rode really well to catch me back up. I'm on pole for race two, I'm not at any real power disadvantage anymore and I have these fantastic Dunlop race tires." In terms of who was the best man on the day, even Hodgson and his amazing grit had to take second place to a fully fired-up and perfectly prepared Bayliss. "I would have to say that race one was one of my best-ever races," said Bayliss. "Having made the mistake [running through the chicane], I just put my head down and tried as hard as I could to catch up. I put together a number of great laps in the middle of the race, and then to come away with the race win was excellent. The mistake was all my fault. I was thinking about the various possibilities of the race and missed my braking marker. I could have turned it into the chicane, but it was easier to just go down the slip road and rejoin on the other side. I didn't get an advantage. If anything, I lost too much ground when I came back onto the track." Ben Bostrom (155) had a weekend he'd rather forget. Here he leads Chris Walker (91 and Eric Bostrom, his younger brother. 18 MAY 22, 2002' c u e I • Even with his off-track excursion, he was in a world of his own - over full race distance at least, although each race delivered some excellent battles for the lead in classic, ultrafast Monza fashion. Bayliss confessed that his motivation for this race was not all internal for a change. «All the races this year have been hard," he said. "The second race today was good. Colin [Edwards] got caught up at the same time I was able to put in a couple of good laps, I then got my head down and got away. I have the best team, the best bike and the best tires and have some of the best fans at the Monza track. I can't not take two wins here, plus all of the big bosses are here and I've got to keep them happy." Pole position for Hodgson proved a useful asset as he took the holeshot in the first race, edging out Bayliss, Edwards and Noriyuki Haga and his PlayStation2 Aprilia on the run into the horrid first chicane. The last named was to survive only a lap until his machine expired, but by that stage HM Plant Ducati's James ToseIand and Chili had both been dropped from the lead, with Hodgson over half a second clear of his closest pursuer after just one lap. It wasn't to last, and after the infamous Chicane incident, Hodgson was overtaken by Bayliss for the second "permanent" time. Bayliss broke the lap record twice in three laps, with his 14th circuit the new official lap record time, a 1:47.434. He may have only won by 0.2 of a second, but the feeling was that Bayliss had the game sussed once he had made his superhuman effort to get back on terms. Chili was disappointed to take fourth, as he also thought that both Edwards and Bayliss would be docked time or made to come in for a stop-and-go penalty. Edwards ignored the criticism and contented himself with describing race life from the saddle of his VTR. "That was a hard second race and it was all looking okay. The pace was slower because the temperature was up. Haga got up with us, Hodgson had a broken exhaust and we ended