Neukirchner takes it to the Max

Max Neukirchner has become the first German to win a Superbike World Championship race as he and Noriyuki Haga took the honours in Monza.

Alstare Suzuki's Neukirchner won Race 1 at the Italian circuit, beating the Yamaha Motor Italia of Haga by just 0.058 seconds.

Race 2 saw Haga edge out Neukirchner by just 0.009secs after a three-man sprint for the line.

Australian championship leader Troy Bayliss was third in Race 1 on his Ducati Xerox, with nearest rival Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) down in eighth after he was relegated to the back of the field after a clash with fellow Spaniard Fonsi Nieto.

In Race 2, Haga and Neukirchner both were behind Ryuichi Kiyonari as they braked for the final entry into the Parabolica but they got through to complete the fifth closest finish in Superbike history.

An engine problem ended Bayliss' afternoon but Checa also retired to ensure the Australian extended his already-daunting championship lead.

Neukirchner was delighted with his afternoon's work, saying: "It's the first win by a German rider in World Superbike and I'm really happy about that."

"My team did a great job this weekend. Our engine for sure is very fast, Suzuki have done a lot of development work on it."

Haga could not believe how close Race 2 finished.

"On that last lap, I was thinking about what I had to do to win, my head was totally blank but I arrived at the line and couldn't believe the gap, 0.009 seconds," he said.

"Monza is special for me, here is our home track and I have been thinking for all last week that I must win."