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World Superbike Championship Round 7: Lausitz. Germany Neil Hodgson (100) and Xaus (11) do battle. Hodgson crashed in the first race and finished eighth in the second. Xaus was third In both races. tually give ground to both Bayliss and Edwards, scoring a pair of third-place finishes. A big improvement for Xaus' confidence was needed, and he got it express delivery. "The track is very hard and you are holding a lot of lean angle through the turns and using a lot of the tire. By the end of the first lap, Troy and Colin were gone and I had an advantage over fourth position. Towards the end of the race, I had a three-second advantage, and then I saw it drop to 2.4 seconds and I thought for sure they will catch me, but I just relaxed and kept smooth and got back down in the one minute, 40 second laps and increased my advantage to 3.9 seconds." In race two, Xaus was again a man possessed. "In this race, my start was not so good. I think my clutch stuck or something," he explained. "It was good for me that Ben [Bostrom] was in the lead, and when I found my rhythm I was catching, catching, catching. I caught Troy and I nearly hit him on the brakes, and the next lap I was able pass him. The following chicane though, Troy was amazing and I think I was losing half a second a lap to him every lap through there. I am running a different sprocket to Troy and it means that we are at different speeds at different parts of the track. After Troy got past, I had a big slide and there was nothing I could do to stop Colin coming past. It's been a good weekend Station 2 Aprilia's Noriyuki Haga swapped fourth- and fifth-place finishes, with Bostrom taking the higher position in race two. He was actually the early leader in the second race, until the whirlwind of Bayliss blew past him for keeps. "The bike was perfect and the guys did a great job, but my rear was spinning up," Bostrom said. "I made a good start, but I think I was holding the others up. Fourth position is okay - it could be worse." Haga said of his races: "My aim is to win, so I'm only pleased up to a point with these positions. Even so, if I think back to where we were at the end of the sessions on Friday, I can only be satisfied. We had no references here, so things should go better at Misano, where we'll be in a couple of weeks' time - we did our tests there last month." James Toseland leads Gregorio Lavllla In their raceone fight for seventh place, a spot that ultimately fell to Toseland. for us, two podiums and I've battled for the lead today which didn't seem possible a few meetings ago." L&M Ducatj's Bostrom and Play- 34 JUNE 19. 2002' cue • • n • _ s Interestingly enough, and disappointing for the Dunlop guys, the Michelin guys had it all their own way again this week, which may be more to do with the riders than anything else, especially the top two, but nonetheless the message at this level off World Superbike racing seems plain. Chili proved to be the fastest privateer rider, taking his NCR 998RS Ducati to a pair of lonely but assured sixth places. Two strangely incident-free - and less than thrilling - World Superbike races were the order of the day for all the main contenders, reducing the entertainment level of the races at what isn't a scenic or interestingly laid-out track. In a day laden simply with mirrorimage results from race one to race two, HM Plant's James Toseland scored two sevenths on his 2001- spec factory Ducati, edging out his own teammate Neil Hodgson in race two, after Hodgson experienced two depressing results. He failed to finish race one after a second-lap crash, despite restarting to retire on lap 12. Colin Wright - HM Plant Team Manager - explained it, sort of: "Not yet sure what the problem is, we're looking into it now. We don't know whether it's too much front brake or a tire problem. I decided to call Neil in after three laps to save his energy for race two." He dropped down the results after a bright start to the second outing, having clashed with Haga. His front tire was scarred beyond belief as well, showing that it was not just the rider who could not get back on terms with the guys at the front after his recoup from 11th place. "It's been a strange weekend and I'm not really sure what's going on," said Hodgson. "After I dropped back, I tried to catch James, but my front tire was so worn I nearly crashed a number of times. In the end, I thought that two DNFs would be a disaster and eighth place would be better." Gregorio Lavilla's weekend also held mixed fortunes, with the Alstare Suzuki rider finishing his day with one eighth and a DNF. Kawasaki's Chris Walker was in the same position, when his rear wheel's hub failed right at the start of race two, although recovered to take some points for ninth in the race. He tried his best in front of his team's home crowd, but on a four, on a track like Lausitz, the twins' corner-exit acceleration was too much for the Kawasaki men.