After the riders were formed up and ready to take off on the warm up lap a 5 minute delay board came out and Troy Bayliss left the grid and went in to his pit before coming back out a couple of minutes later.  A confusing development to say the least.  Nonetheless the riders made it back to their bikes and took off on the warm up lap after the delay.

Edwards and Bayliss got good runs off the line and went through turn 1 in that order.  Hodgson 3rd, Xaus 4th.  Bayliss gets under Edwards for the left hander but Edwards got him back on the change of direction on the run down the hill.  The battle for the championship is on and is going tooth and nail already.

Ruben Xaus was sliding his Ducati all over the place but somehow was keeping both wheels on the deck to get past Hodgson for 3rd on lap 3.  Edwards had built a half a second lead on Bayliss by lap 3.  But Bayliss responded by setting the fastest lap on the third time around.  Then Edwards came right back at him with the fastest lap on the fourth time around to take a couple of bike lengths out of Troy, the gap around half a second.

Edwards put his head down and worked hard over the next couple of laps to stretch the gap out to 1.2 seconds, 1m48.27 the lap time for Edwards that time around and then built on it further to pull the gap out to 2 seconds by lap 8.  Goddard went down on lap 9 with another rider.

Bayliss then put a good charge on and got the gap down from over 2 seconds down to half a second in a couple of laps.  Hodgson went out on lap 11 after losing the front.  The red flag then came out but without enough laps for the race to be declared so the race will be re-started with Edwards having a 0.7 second lead on Bayliss.

After the normal delays between the two legs the riders gridded up again.  Edwards and Bayliss away clean again, Bayliss takes the lead in turn 1, Edwards 2nd, Hodgson 3rd.

Edwards took the lead late in that first lap of the re-start.  Hodgson ran wide and lost 3rd place to Haga, Xaus also went through, relegating Hodgson to 5th.   Bayliss still holding on to the back of Edwards but on combined time he lags a second behind the Castrol Honda.

Bayliss took the lead from Edwards with 7 laps remaining, but he still has to pull a gap on Edwards to be leading on combined time.  Ruben Xaus was closing a little on the leading duo.  Bayliss in front on the track but Edwards has half a second on combined time with 6 laps remaining.  The pressure on Bayliss must be monumental.

Edwards got through on Bayliss the next lap around but Troy was sticking right with him with 4 laps to run.  Bayliss got him back again a lap later but Edwards got him right back on the next change of direction.

Bayliss got the lead back as they started the last lap but Edwards still has the advantage on combined time.

Bayliss crosses the line first but Edwards takes the race win on combined time.  The last race should be a cracker.