Monza is synonymous with excitement not only on the track, but also in the stands, with more than 118,000 people rushing to the Italian circuit during the weekend for round five of the World Superbike Championship.

The summer sun shone through on Saturday for the Superpole Session. After suffering a fall in Superpole One at the infamous “Parabolica”, Max Biaggi returned to the track for Superpole Two with his spare bike and a set of competition tyres instead of the more common qualifying tyres, the session saw him qualify seventh and set a new Superbike top speed record on his Aprilia RSV-4, clocking an extraordinary 325.5 km/h.

Shinya Nakano qualified in sixteenth position finishing Superpole One in eleventh position aboard competition tyres however he was unable to take advantage of the qualifying tyres in Superpole Two.

"It was going pretty well for us,” stated Biaggi, “when all of a sudden; I lost control at the entry to the Parabolica. I’m very sorry for damaging my favorite bike, the accident meant that I had to use my other bike which I am not as comfortable with. I would have liked to qualify on the front row, which would have been an excellent result for us as we are still developing the bike. Tomorrow we are expecting two very difficult races; everything will depend on the pace our adversaries set.”

“In Superpole One I used competition tyres which went fairly well,” said Nakano. “I improved my time and made it into the final sixteen. In Superpole Two, I was not able to improve my time with the qualifying tyres, due to an incorrect setting. Things certainly went much better compared to yesterday and we’ll try other solutions in the warm up session tomorrow, it won’t be an easy race at all, but I will try to make it to the top ten.”

Italian fans were treated to a dramatic Race One which will surely be added to the history books. Right from the start it was Ben Spies, Michel Fabrizio, Noriyuki Haga, Biaggi and Yukio Kagayama who took the lead, however, by lap five Spies, Haga and Fabrizio were able to break away setting a pace that could not be matched. Biaggi and Ryuichi Kiyonari fought for fourth position, eventually Biaggi showed his hand and passed Kyonari and was destined to finish in fourth until the final corner of the final lap when Spies’s Yamaha ran out of fuel and stalled allowing Fabrizio, Haga and Biaggi to pass, completing the podium.

As Biaggi climbed the third step on the podium the loud speaker announced that the Aprilia rider had been issued a twenty second penalty for cutting the second chicane in the seventh lap, Kiyonari then replaced Biaggi on the podium whilst Biaggi was relegated to eleventh position. Nakano finished two places behind Biaggi in thirteenth position.

In Race Two Spies made sure his Yamaha was properly filled with fuel and went on to gain a five second gap in front of the rest of the field, which he maintained until he crossed the finish line. Behind Spies, an intesnse battle for the remaining steps of the podium ignited among between Fabrizio, Kiyonari and Jonathon Rea.

Biaggi also got back in to the groove in the fifth lap after a bad start however by the tenth lap, the Roman driver made an error at the first chicane and lost contact with the group. He tried to recover, but ended up in fifth position behind Rea. Michel Fabrizio stepped onto the second level of the podium after beating out Kiyonari in a grueling battle. It was a twelfth place finish for Nakano, who had a good race and drastically improved his time.

"I’m very angry,” declared Biaggi. “But I respect the decision even if I do not agree with it. I would have understood had I taken the lead at that point, but the times clearly show that I was running a half second slower during that lap. The incident happened in exactly the same point where Smrz made the same mistake last year ran and hit me resulting in a broken pinkie finger and the fifth piece of metal in my left hand, and no one did anything about it. I didn’t even want to race in the second heat, but then my good sense took over and I got onto the track anyway, despite all the controversy. Race Two was not too bad, I had a good rhythm going and was catching up to the second group, but then I made an error and lost ground.”

“It was a very difficult race,” said Nakano. “The second heat went better, my times were decent and I recovered several positions after having lost ground at the start. I am happy that my shoulder didn’t bother me the entire weekend and it should be even better for Kyalami. Honestly, I am amazed at the penalty Max received. I saw a lot of riders that cut the chicane during the race, but no one else was penalized.”