Andrew Pitt got another great start just ahead of Troy Corser while Noriyuki Haga also got away well and quickly moved past Corser and then started hounding Pitt for the lead.  Cardoso again had no luck after crashing on the opening lap and looking injured, an unbelievably bad start to the season by a rider that proved so promising in testing, practice and qualifying. Kagayama was running fourth and Laconi was in fifth after a very ordinary jump off the line.

Pitt continued to lead the way but Corser and Kagayama got the better of Haga and Corser closed on the tail pipe of Pitt. Corser then squeezed under Pitt to take the lead and Kagayama also went through on Pitt a few corners later to again stamp the authority of the new K5 GSX-R1000 Suzuki.

Just to remind thus that Ducati is not dead and buried Regis Laconi moved up to third place after closing and then dispensing with Pitt.

Laconi then put a big effort in to try and stay with the Suzuki duo up front and was doing exactly that.  Meanwhile Pitt's fourth place was starting to come under attack from Neukirchner and Abe.

Troy Corser then had some sort of a moment or problem and surrendered the lead to Yukio Kagayama and fell back into the clutches of Laconi.

Chris Walker and Karl Muggeridge both went down just after half race distance after a coming together.

Laconi managed to take second place from Corser and the Australian seemed to have no answer to the Ducati man this time around.

A gaggle of riders had started to build up behind fourth place Pitt with a freight train consisting of Neukirchner, Chili, Abe, Vermeulen , Toseland and Gimbert all right on Pitt's hammer and just waiting for the ex World Supersport Champion to make a small mistake or leave the slightest gap open.  With six laps to run Chili found that gap and took fourth place from Pitt. A lap later Chris Vermeulen also found a way past to push Pitt back to sixth place and then the Queenslander rapidly closed on Chili and was looking ready to challenge. A lap later Vermeulen did exactly that and moved past Chili under brakes to take fourth place. The Honda boys putting in a better showing this time around.

Meanwhile Kagayama had built more than two seconds over Laconi while Corser was a further three seconds down in third place.  Vermeulen was in fourth and this time a lot closer to the leaders with only 9 seconds between first and fourth with a couple of laps to run rather than the 15 second deficit in race one. Chili's fifth place was starting to come under attack from Toseland.

As they started the final lap Neukirchner pushed Pitt back to sixth place.

The race was Kagayama's after a brilliant performance. He took the chequered flag 2.5 seconds ahead of Laconi with Corser rounding out the podium.  Pitt had drifted back from fourth place to finally end up ninth place and would be very disappointed with that fact.

All in all an interesting weekend.  From early indications it seems that the Suzuki will be the bike to beat, but it is also clear that Ducati can certainly not be discounted.