World Superbike 2003 - Round 7 - Misano

Iannuzzo led them through turn 1 on the GSX-R1000 but ran wide in turn 2 to allow Hodgson through for the lead but he recovered well, nevertheless Toseland relegated him further to 3rd place at the next turn. Laconi relegated him a further place a few corners later.

Hodgson then came off at the hairpin and headed off in to the sand and was forced to retire at the end of lap 1 which meant Toseland inherited the lead, albeit briefly as Laconi took the lead off him a few turns later while Chili moved up in to 3rd place.

Ruben Xaus was on a charge and slotted through on Lavilla, Martin, and then Iannuzzo before closing on to the back of Chili on lap 3.

A couple of laps later Xaus got Chili for 3rd and shortly after that Toseland took Laconi for the race lead.

Xaus continued his charge forward and squeezed past Laconi for 2nd place on lap 6. Steve Martin was on the back of the leading pack in 6th spot.

On the next lap Xaus took the lead from Toseland. Chili was running 3rd, Laconi 4th, Iannuzzo 5th and Martin 6th. Toseland came back at Xaus on the next lap but the Spaniard took his lead straight back. He then swapped positions with Toseland a few times over the next lap, the leading quartet running virtually nose to tail at this stage, Iannuzzo also right them in 5th but Steve Martin had lost some ground by lap 10.

In the 50-degree celsius track temperatures it looked as though it would come down to a tyre war with Xaus running on Michelins while Toseland was looking more secure on Dunlops. By half race distance still less than two seconds covered the top five riders.

The pace up the front was really hotting up, in more ways than one, with both Xaus and Toseland pulling huge slides in their quest to get the better of each other. Right behind them looking in much better shape was Pierfrancesco Chili being cheered on loudly by his fans at his home track.

Just after I finished cleaning up that last sentence Chili slotted under James Toseland for 2nd place and closed on to the back wheel of Ruben Xaus. Iannuzzo fell at around this stage of the race after drifting back through the pack.

By lap 19 of 25 the leading quartet was still covered by less than 1 second. Toseland started to attack Chili and squeezed past momentarily before Chili got him back at the next turn. Chili looking smooth and good but Xaus's factory 999 just looked to have too much speed for Frankie's privateer machine.

Just after I finished typing that Chili did manage to squeeze through on Xaus for the lead. Chili managed to hold on to the lead for nearly a lap before Xaus powered back past him through the fast left hander which was Xaus's strongest part of the track.

Unbelievably Chili managed to throw it away on the last lap to lose his 2nd spot which left Xaus to take the win half a second ahead of James Toseland with Laconi a few bike lengths further down.

Xaus
Toseland
Laconi
Lavilla
Walker
Martin
Corser
Pedercini
Sanchini
Clementi
Borciani
Gramigni
Blora
Foti
Fuertes