Sterilgarda Yamaha's Ben Spies closed the gap on World Superbike championship rival Noriyuki Haga to just two points after taking the race one win at the Nurburgring this morning ahead of the Xerox Ducati-mounted Japanese.
Spies had to lap on the ragged edge to get away from the Japanese rider over the final two circuits and Haga looked physically worn out as he cruised over the line after 20 laps. It is Haga's first race back after his massive Donington Park crash.
The race was red-flagged initially as a crash at the first corner on lap one saw John Hopkins, Broc Parkes and Makoto Tamada go down after the Stiggy Honda man lost the rear.
On the re-start, Haga got away from the line first with Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea and Spies in close attendance. Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam got a terrible start, made up a load of places on the brakes and looked set for third into the first turn until he ran wide.
From turn two, it looked like Haga was going to run away with it and Spies and Rea started a battle for second place, dropping the pack as they scrapped. Spies eventually got past the Irishman with 16 laps to go, but Rea was back past a lap later, only to hand the place back again by running wide.
After dropping Rea, Spies set about closing the one-second gap to Haga as Richard Cooper, who is standing in for Ruben Xaus on the BMW, crashed out of 15th place.
At half distance, Spies was right on Haga's back wheel going past the Ducati on lap ten but he wasn't able to pull away, begging the question whether Haga had been running at is fastest pace.
The Japanese shadowed the American and showed him a wheel a couple of times going into turn one but Spies' wide line into the turn meant he couldn't make a move.
Spies eventually pulled the pin halfway round the penultimate lap as a visibly-tiring Haga couldn't live with the Texan's pace. Further down the field, Rea just lost out on a podium to team-mate Carlos Checa while Haslam made his way through to fifth, passing Michel Fabrizio and Troy Corser to start a battle with Max Biaggi.
Haslam got past the Aprilia with a few laps to go but Biaggi managed to get back past and hold the former British Superbike Championship front-runner behind him for fifth.
