WSBK: Monza Race 1 Results – No Justice for the Emperor

The first chicane of the Monza circuit is notorious for accidents and hated by all racers because it tightens into a dangerous and tight funnel. Race 1 of the World Superbike Championship at Monza would not be spared of the dangers of the first chicane as a terrifying accident brought the race to an almost immediate halt with five riders seriously involved. Race 1 would continue to prove itself to be full of surprises as more riders ran in to different sorts of difficulty throughout the race’s duration. Continue reading for more and spoilers.

Coming into Turn 1 of the chican, Makoto Tamada clipped the back of Brendan Roberts’ Ducati who then collided into Tommy Hill and Troy Corser with both bikes going down, then catching fire. With Tamada down, Roberts slid off in the gravel, his bike sliding and flying into the pack, which then whipped out Max Neukirchner, who had entered the corner in the lead.

Neukirchner suffered a broken right femur and a dislocated left foot, while Roberts has a break high on his left femur and also sustained a heavy blow to his throat. Makoto Tamada suffered a broken left wrist. A brusied Troy Corser was able to restart the race but would later crash out, and Tommy Hill would go on to finish the race in 20th.

Under red flag, it took race control over an hour to pick up the pieces of debris, and clean the track up from oil spills.

Following closely behind Fabrizio was Noriyuki Haga, and then Max Biaggi. a close second and Max Biaggi in third. However Biaggi was penalised with 20 seconds for cutting the Roggia chicane handing an automatic third to Ryuichi Kiyonari.

On his way to the podium, Max Biaggi heard the news that he had received a penalty for cutting the Roggia chicane on the seventh lap, and that he would recieve a 20 second penalty. Also, it was announced that Monza race direction was awarding third place to Ryuichi Kiyonari, with Biaggi coming in 11th after the 20 second penalty was added to his time.

Clearly the Roman Emperor was not happy about the outcome, and in typical Biaggi fashion, pouted about this unjustice while in the pits.

“This Championship is managed by amateurs! It’s disgusting the way they treated us! First, the cutting of the chicane was almost insignificant and I didn’t even gain a tenth of a second and second, when I asked for the FIM representative, Claude Denis for an explanation he told me that he didn’t have time to discuss this with me. I’m tired of this conduct, I’m calling it quits with SBK.”

Biaggi then threatened to sit out of the second race at Monza, but Aprilia and his team was able to convince Biaggi to take part in Race 2, where he finished better than his 11th place in Race 1.

Race Results from Race 1 of the World Superbike Championship at Monza, Italy: 

Source: MotoGP Matters & Two Wheels Blog