Haga takes first victory this season at Brands.

The hard riding Noriyuki Haga has taken a well earned win during race two of the eighth round of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship.

The Yamaha rider had a fight on his hands with Troy Bayliss on the Xerox Ducati pushing hard for the win, but Bayliss ran a touch wide clipping the dirt which allowed Haga to just pull enough of a gap for a safe win

"In the first race I had a problem and couldn't push," said Haga, "For race two I used my number two bike as it was working better than my number one bike. I had a big fight with Troy Bayliss and first five laps I look at his backside and then I get past for last five," he concluded.

Bayliss still in his full Superman out fit to promote the new movie "Superman Returns," admitted it had been a hard day on track saying, "It has been a really hard day but I am happy with the points. I've had a few great battles with Nori over the years and I really had fun out there today. I shouldn't have let him get past me but he rode really well and I couldn't get by him."

Third place went to Haga's team-mate Andrew Pitt who had to work his way through the pack picking off current champion Troy Corser and former champ, James Toseland which is no easy task. "I had a bad start, I think I gave it too many revs," said Pitt, "After race one I was happy with my riding, my lap times and my rhythm was good. So I just went out and did the same in race two. I didn't give up and just kept pushing, I've some friends here this weekend so I wanted to put on a good show!" he grinned.

Race two didn't go according to plan for the Winston Ten Kate Honda team with Toseland struggling with rear grip and Karl Muggeridge crashing out again. Toseland finished in fifth place and Muggeridge fell again in a similar fashion to race one. He caught his crank case on the curbing, and that lifted both his wheels off the ground and down he went in a shower of sparks.

Tommy Hill had a technical issue in race two with Virgin Mobile Yamaha and was forced to park it up on lap five.

Regis Laconi was the first of the PSG-1 Kawasaki's home in a strong fourth place with team-mate Chris Walker in eighth. Their third team-mate Fonsi Nieto retired after a trek across the gravel. After race one Laconi and Nieto had a rather physical argument following an on track incident. Laconi wasn't impressed with a move Nieto had made and he made his displeasure known.

WSBK race results (2) - Brands Hatch:

1. Noriyuki Haga
2. Troy Bayliss
3. Andrew Pitt
4. Regis Laconi
5. James Toseland
6. Troy Corser
7. Yukio Kagayama
8. Chris Walker
9. Alex Barros
10. Rubens Xaus