Yamaha Motor Italia's Noriyuki Haga grabbed a podium finish at today's Czech round of the Superbike World Championship to close the gap on series leader Troy Bayliss by 21 points.

After winning yesterday's superpole qualifying session, Haga went into the race confident of scoring good results at the circuit where he gained the Yamaha YZF-R1's first world superbike win 12 months earlier.

The Japanese star had been in the thick of a five-rider battle for the lead in race one but a lack of front grip meant that he was unable to respond to a late breakaway by fellow countryman Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) and Britain's James Toseland (Honda), with hard charging Italian Michel Fabrizio (Honda) pipping the Yamaha man for the final podium slot at the last corner.

For race two Haga made a few small set-up changes to his machine and raced away to lead by over three seconds, only to slip back to the pack as his grip diminished again. Kagayama took the lead with four laps remaining, with Fabrizio making another forceful move to take second on the final corner. Haga's third place sees him stay second in the championship, but with a reduced gap to leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati). Bayliss leads the Yamaha rider by 73 points with 10 races and 250 points up for grabs.

After winning his first world superbike race last time out in Misano, Andrew Pitt had a miserable experience in Brno, failing to finish both races. The Australian former world supersport champion had been at the sharp end in each outing, only to retire with fuelling problems a few laps from home. Despite his failure to score he retains his sixth place in the championship.

Yamaha Motor France's Shinichi Nakatomi had his best result as a world superbike rider, catching and passing his vastly more experienced team-mate Norick Abe for eighth in the opener. Thirteenth in the second race gave him an 11 point haul for the weekend. Abe battled with traction problems all weekend to take ninth and 12th places. The team's Sebastien Gimbert took 13th and 15th to secure the squad a little piece of superbike history as the first team to score six point-scoring finishes in one weekend.

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"I was sure that I could win today but unfortunately I was not able to get good enough tyre life. They were two hard races, as we expected them to be, but I am not very happy with Fabrizio. Racing is racing but he should not hit other riders when he makes a pass. I'm disappointed today but we have a busy schedule. Tonight we go to Japan for next weekend's Suzuka eight-hour race, and then it is Brands Hatch which is a track I enjoy riding at."

Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France)
"I am happy this weekend and I had a nice fight with Abe-san to get my best result so far, in race one. In race two we had an even better one. Next weekend at the 8-hour I want a podium finish!"

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France)
"My problem, as always, is lack of rear traction. From Friday to today I had no grip from the rear. Normally it is only me with this problem, but here everyone says the same thing. I think mine is even worse than anybody's and there was too much sliding everywhere. We tried so many settings in practice but it just kept doing the same thing. In both races I did my best. I could do no more."

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"A very disappointing day. In the first race I felt quite comfortable running with Haga and the group for third when the bike started to misfire and lose maximum rpm. I tried to bring it home to get some points but it died on the second last lap. It was the same again in the second race. We were right up there only for it to stop right at the end."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia)
"A difficult day for us. We had high expectations from this race and things looked promising in qualifying. I think that Noriyuki could have won if the tyre life had been better and Andrew would have scored good points had it not been for his problems. We are looking into exactly what happened but it seems that his bike developed a fuelling problem. The only positive from today is that Nori has still taken points off Bayliss. Twenty one points in one weekend is a good result and we have also shown all weekend that we are able to run at the very front."

Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France)
"This year compared to last year our grip was 100 percent gone. This is the worst situation imaginable for Norick and I think he was a little depressed with the results. But in one way this is a good weekend for us, as we have points from each rider, in each race, and Shinichi is OK for the Suzuka 8-Hour. Sebastien Gimbert is happy because he made two good races in the points."

Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes dominated today's seventh round of the Supersport World Championship in Brno, taking their Yamaha YZF-R6s to the top two places on the podium and closing in on the lead of the championship.

Between them, the two Australians led every one of the 18 laps around the fast and flowing Czech circuit - pressurised only by Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda).

Parkes had been the fastest rider off the line, but by lap seven pole sitter Curtain was in the lead and on his way to his first win of the season. In blazing hot temperatures the leading trio pushed hard throughout the race to build up a gap of almost 20 seconds over fourth placed Yoann Tibero (Honda) by the flag.

With the hot conditions pushing man, machine and tyres to the limit, almost half of the 38 rider field did not make it to the finish line. Among those was Misano winner Massimo Roccoli, who crashed his Yamaha Team Italia YZF-R6 out of fifth place on lap seven. There was good news for his team-mate Gianluca Vizziello however, the Italian gaining a season's best of fifth. A total of five Yamahas finished in the top 10 at Brno, with Mauro Sanchini seventh on his Moto 1-entered machine and David Checa eighth on the Yamaha GMT94 R6.

Curtain's win moves him to within ten points of series leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), who finished 11th in today's race. Parkes retains his third place in the standings, 27 points from the lead, with Roccoli retaining fifth despite a failure to score in Brno.

Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany)
"I'm really stoked to finally get that win. It was a hard race and I was worried that my front tyre might go off and ruin my race, but as it was the front worked perfectly. The rear grip was gone quite early but I just kept pushing as hard as I could. Kenan had pushed hard early on and I was a little concerned that he might be able to get to the front and break away, because in the past races they have seemed to have more grip than us late in the race. But today's result is a great credit to my team. We are developing and learning about the bike all the time. We've had some bad luck in the last few races but today shows that when it all comes together we are more than a match for anyone. I gave it everything this weekend because I knew that we had a chance to win here and take some points back from Sebastien. Right now I'm just so happy and really looking forward to the next round."

Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany)
"It was a tough race and I'm happy with my second place. I made a great start, which wasn't really expected, and pushed as hard as possible. I had hoped to get away with Kevin and stick with him and save my tyres, but it didn't really work out like that. I struggled for front grip for most of the race and had a lot of big moments, so it was a case of bringing it home for some good points and a great result for the team."

Gianluca Vizziello (Yamaha Team Italia)
"I didn't make such a good start but that's quite normal. I had a good feel from the front so I had the confidence to pass people and made my way forward. Toward the end it looked like I could maybe catch Tiberio in front of me, but in the last three laps the rear tyre started to lose some performance, so I opted not to gamble too much after all the work I had done to come from 12th."