Troy Bayliss capitalised on his pole position to lead the field through turn one at Imola ahead of Haga, Pitt, Corser and Toseland with that latter pairing getting a little too close to comfort in turn one. Pitt took second place from Haga halfway around lap one while Lanzi ran wide onto the grass before rejoining the tarmac while Yukio Kagayama and Max Neukirchner both went down and out of the race.  Early on lap two Pitt squeezed past Bayliss to take the lead and immediately managed to pull a little time out of the Ducati man. Ruben Xaus had worked his way up to sixth place before the Spaniard went down.

A clear top five had established itself after a few laps with the top five men in the championship but Corser reduced that leading group by one after he ran off into the kitty litter and rejoined the race well down the order in 16th place.  Alex Barros was inching closer to the leading group on each lap and set a new fastest lap of the race on lap six to reduce the gap to James Toseland down to only half a dozen bike lengths.

Andrew Pitt was looking very strong in the lead but the Yamaha man had a near highside on lap seven that saw both his feet come off the pegs and his R1 go into a vicious wobble. It settled  down in time for him to only lose around a second but with the front group running so close together that was enough to relegate him to fourth place. Half a lap later Barros pushed Pitt back to fifth place and another half a lap saw Barros easily dispense with Haga before setting his sights on second placed Toseland who trailed race leader Bayliss by only a bike length. Toseland had other ideas though and took the lead from Bayliss on lap nine and started to inch away from Bayliss who in turn was starting to come under pressure from Alex Barros. That leading trio had started to pull away from the Yamaha pairing of Haga and Pitt who were having their own tussle over fourth place.

Barros made his move on Bayliss on lap 12 was immediately closed on the tail of Toseland. The Brazilian was looking much smoother than the Briton and it only took him half a lap to make a brilliant move up the inside to take the lead. Once Barros hit the front he really put the hammer down and the pair started to pull away from Bayliss.

A hectic battle for sixth was unfolding well behind the leading group with Laconi, Muggeridge and Lanzi the protagonists in that duel.

Barros finally managed to break away from Toseland with six laps to run to put some breathing space between himself and the Ten Kate man who he is expected to join as his team-mate next year.

Pitt managed to break away from Haga with a few laps to run and started to threaten Bayliss for third.  Up front Barros had pulled an escape act and Toseland was a clear second place which left only the final step on the podium to be fought over. Pitt took third place from Bayliss with three laps to run and pulled away from the Ducati man who only had to run home safely in order to clinch the 2006 World Superbike Championship.

Alex Barros rode his Fireblade home to a brilliant win over four seconds ahead of Toseland while Andrew Pitt rounded out the podium.  Troy Bayliss was pipped out of fourth place by Noriyuki Haga on the run to the flag but that didn't worry the Australian as his fifth place finish earned him enough points to be declared the 2006 World Superbike Champion with three races still remaining in the series. No joy for the man who relinquishes his title to Bayliss with Corser failing to finish the race after making a number of errors in the race and the 25 points Barros earned for the win promoted him into equal fifth place in the standings with the Suzuki man.  Toseland's second place was enough to slip past Haga for second place in the series standings while Pitt's third place strengthened his fourth position in the series with a 15 point buffer over Corser and Barros.

----    Day 3    ----
SBK R1 - SS Race - SBK R2 - Reports - Aussie - FG Sport - Ducati - Suzuki - HRC - FPR - Yamaha

----    Day 2    ----
SS FP2 - SBK QP2 - SS QP2 - Superpole - Reports - FG Sport - Ducati - Suzuki - HRC - FPR - Yamaha

----    Day 1    ----
SS FP1 - SBK FP1 - SS QP1 - SBK QP1

----    Previews    ----
Aussie - Statistical - FG Sport - Ducati - HRC- Suzuki - Yamaha - FPR

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