Sterilgarda Yamaha's Ben Spies has one hand on the 2009 World Superbike Championship after taking the race one win at Portimao as Xerox Ducati's Noriyuki Haga crashed out with 16 laps to go.
Spies now has a 15-point advantage over the Japanese rider with one race to go. Haga lost the front of his 1098R into a slow-speed left-hander and despite running back to the bike, couldn't get back into the action.
The American charged to the front as soon as the lights went out, going through the first turn and immeditately putting a gap on Aprilia's Max Biaggi in second and Sterilgarda Ducati's Shane Byrne in third.
On lap two, Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea passed Byrne for second down the start/finish straight as Haga started to make his way the field from his third-row grid slot.
As Spies stretched his lead to a second, Haga slid up to sixth just behind Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam with the second Xerox Ducati of Michel Fabrizio in close attendance.
With 17 laps to go, Haslam ran wide into the fast first turn which allowed both Ducatis through, giving Fabrizio the problem of what to do about his team-mate as the Italian was visibly quicker, but he elected to follow probable team orders and sit behind the Japanese but it was only a problem for a handful of laps.
Further down the field, crashes and some consistently quick laps saw Aprilia's Leon Camier haul himself up to seventh place as his team-mate Biaggi started to reel in Spies, dragging Rea with him.
With 13 laps to go, former British Superbike front runner Sylvain Guintoli was forced to push his Alstare Suzuki into the pits and a lap later, Haslam crashed for the second time today. This morning, he highsided off his Fireblade, chipping his elbow and requiring 15 stitches.
Rea and Biaggi then started a proper scrap for second, which allowed Spies to get away again and for Byrne to catch them. With seven laps to go, the Italian ran wide allowing Rea to go past and Byrne locked on to his rear wheel.
It took Biaggi two laps to get back on the pace and went back past the young Irishman down the start/finish straight but two laps later, Rea re-took second place and held it to the chequered flag.
Haslam's crash promoted Camier to sixth place while Tom Sykes will not race this weekend due to the damage he suffered to his shoulder in the second outing at Magny-Cours.
