Tamada takes two, but not without a fight.

Makoto Tamada's margin of victory in the second race of the day at Sugo may have been similar to that of his race one walkover but on this occasion he was made to fight harder than he has done all weekend as Hitoyasu Izutsu led the field for more than half the race.

Makoto Tamada's bright red/orange Cabin Honda once again was the class of the World Superbike field at the 2.231-mile Sugo track in Japan taking his second victory of the day by more than three seconds over factory Kawasaki rider Hitoyasu Izutsu who led the opening 15 laps of the 25 lap second race of the day.

Once again Tamada was forced to battle his way passed the leading trio as his second lacklustre start of the day dropped him to fifth on the opening lap and although he swiftly dispatched with the likes of Tamaki Serizawa, Ben Bostrom and Troy Corser, Izutsu proved a far tougher nut to crack and the 2000 double race winner at Sugo fended off several determined efforts from Tamada before finally ceding into the first Turn on lap 15.

From that point onwards the battle was for second place and Tamada's Cabin Honda team-mate Shinichi Ito looked set to make a bid for the place until he ran wide leaving Izutsu and Serizawa to complete the podium ahead of leading World Superbike regular Ben Bostrom.

Neil Hodgson was a superb fifth after passing Corser with four laps to go while following the Aprilia home in seventh was veteran Suzuki rider Akira Ryo who passed Frankie Chili and the recovering Ito in the final five laps.

Michelin runners once again suffered tremendously with Tadayuki Okada the best place in 12th ahead of his team-mate Colin Edwards. Troy Bayliss watched his slender Championship lead disappear along with most of the rubber on his Michelin as he claimed 15th place from James Toseland on the final lap.