2008 World Superbike Championship Round 14 - Portimão, Portugal

Race Results
Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) finished the 2008 WSB season second in the championship standings after securing a podium finish in the first race at Portimão, then following that up with a safe sixth in race two.

The all Yamaha battle for the runner-up spot behind champion Troy Bayliss saw Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) drop out of contention after serving a ride-through penalty for jump-starting in race two, having already been forced out of race one. Both races were won by three-time champion, Troy Bayliss.

In the first 22-lap race Corser was in the leading mix from the start and rode aggressively in the messy early laps to stay in contention, but could not quite get back on terms with second place rider Carlos Checa towards the end. Haga was also looking good for a podium finish until he was forced out on lap 18, having started to slow on lap 16.

Race two put Corser in with the leaders again for some time but he eased up when he realized that overall second place was safe, particularly in a race filled with determined wild cards. Each race was run in the dry, but on a relatively slippery track surface, which was still recovering from a largely wet first two days of action.

Haga was looking good for a strong result in race two until he had to pull in for his penalty, but he recovered to post a 14th place finish and score two championship points. He was thus 15 points behind Corser after 28 individual races, and third overall.

2008 World Superbike - Portugal - Portimão - November 2, 2008

Circuit Length: 4692. Temp: 18. Weather: Sunny

Race 1

1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 38'48.373

2 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 0'2.207

3 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 0'6.972

4 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 0'15.228

5 Fonsi Nieto Suzuki ESP 0'16.126

6 Gregorio Lavilla Honda ESP 0'18.152

7 Leon Haslam Honda GBR 0'18.939

8 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 0'20.942

9 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 0'32.018

10 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'32.871

11 Ayrton Badovini Kawasaki ITA 0'36.778

12 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 0'36.848

13 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'41.667

14 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 0'41.806

15 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'48.337

16 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 0'50.295

20 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'7.007

Race 2

1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 38'26.125

2 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 0'3.638

3 Leon Haslam Honda GBR 0'4.356

4 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 0'4.983

5 Fonsi Nieto Suzuki ESP 0'6.775

6 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 0'7.403

7 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 0'7.578

8 Gregorio Lavilla Honda ESP 0'16.113

9 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 0'16.284

10 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'16.446

11 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 0'21.633

12 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 0'22.098

13 Max Biaggi Ducati ITA 0'24.089

14 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 0'24.117

15 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 0'31.003

17 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'31.330

20 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 0'35.028

22 David Checa Yamaha ESP 0'44.889

Best Lap: Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'43.340

2008 Final WSB Rider Standings - November 2, 2008

1. Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 460

2. Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 342

3. Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 327

4. Carlos Checa Honda ESP 313

5. Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 311

6. Fonsi Nieto Suzuki ESP 256

7. Max Biaggi Ducati ITA 238

8. Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 223

9. Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 206

10. Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 178

11. Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 154

12. Gregorio Lavilla Honda ESP 135

13. Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 117

14. Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 109

15. Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 77

19. Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 51

28. David Checa Yamaha ESP 12

29. Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 12

2008 WSB Final Manufacturer Standings - November 2, 2008

1. Ducati 570

2. Yamaha 487

3. Honda 415

4. Suzuki 408

5. Kawasaki 94

The 14th and final round of the 2008 World Superbike Championship takes place at an all-new venue this weekend, and the focus for both Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) and Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) is clear - to beat each other in the fight for overall second place in the championship rankings.

Currently Haga has a nine-point advantage over Corser, with Corser himself 18 points ahead of Max Neukirchner, and a further 14 ahead of Carlos Checa. In all likelihood the runner-up spot will be contested between the two Yamaha riders, and each is keen to finish off the season with at least one race victory.

So far Haga has seven individual wins to his credit in 2008, during a season which has included utter dominance at some rounds, then pain from injury at one or two others. Corser, despite his greater consistency week-on-week, is still looking for his first win in Yamaha colors, and will be bringing every ounce of the experience that brought him two world championships to bear this weekend, in his attempt to secure that elusive race win.

At the most recent WSB race, at Magny-Cours in France, Haga took a win and second place, while Corser recorded third in race two, his 12th podium finish of the year.

Neither Yamaha rider has experience of the new track but the combination of their talents and the unrivalled experience of the Yamaha Motor Italia technical staff will be a fearsome obstacle for their rivals to overcome, as always.

The all-new track at Portimão was only competed recently and the first tests have just been carried out by a handful of World Superbike and Supersport teams. There are many blind corner entries and sudden changes of elevation at the track, which can be used in several different layouts. For World Superbike the lap will be 4.592km, and the Superbike races will be conducted over 22 laps.

Haga was optimistic of his chances of success in the run-up to race weekend. "Portimão is a new circuit which I have never ridden. We planned to test last week but unfortunately that test was cancelled so we will start from scratch. Anyway, this is the last race of the year so I would like to finish well, for me and especially for our team. This season we have all tried and worked really hard and we had both good and bad days.

This is the last race for us so I will try extra hard to get good results for Yamaha, my team and our supporters. I will send 'Kando'* to every race fan and all my supporters until the end of my last race with Yamaha."

Corser is also committed to winning, as always, this weekend. "I'm looking forward to this weekend and I'll be going all out to get one or two of those wins we have been trying to take all year. It will be very interesting riding at an all-new track that maybe only one or two of the other guys have ridden at before. Most others, like us, have not been there to test. I don't know anything about the circuit at all but we are in the same position as we were in at Miller in America this year. T hat was a completely new track for us as well."

Portimão according to Massimo Meregalli (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team Manager): ""The track is all new for us but we know the bike has a very good level of performance. We haven't tested at Portimão but this is the same for almost everybody so it's not an issue. We are confident we can find a good set-up for the race weekend. Our bike and riders have been very good in the last few races, and we all know what we can do. We are ready to race, like always. Our bikes have been refreshed for the Portimão race but there won't be anything new in the set-up."