Xerox Ducati's Noriyuki Haga has extended his lead over wunderkind Ben Spies by taking the first race win at Valencia this afternoon as the American crashed out at half distance.

Haga is now almost two race wins ahead of the Yamaha Racing rider who lost the front and went down on his way past Max Neukirchner for second place. The American was the only man lapping fast enough to catch Haga.

Michel Fabrizio completed the Ducati one-two for Davide Tardozzi's team with the German in third and DFX Ducati's Regis Laconi, who took a race win here ten years ago in MotoGP, in fourth.

Britain's Leon Haslam once again finished top British rider in fifth and first Honda home, boosting himself back above Max Biaggi in the points table with Spies' team-mate Tom Sykes next Brit along, just behind Yukio Kagayama. Sykes got an excellent start from almost the back of the grid and found himself on the back of Haslam with only a handful of laps gone. He stuck with his former BSB rival but couldn't match the Honda's pace towards the end and had a lonely ride for the rest of the race.
Laconi got the holeshot but was immediately passed by Haga on the exit of turn one. Neukirchner and BMW's Troy Corser, who qualified mid-pack, got past Spies through the first two turns as Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea went down. Corser and Carlos Checa were the next two men to crash in unrelated incidents.

As the pack settled down, Haga got to the front and began to make a break as Spies was trapped in fifth. By half race distance, Haga was two seconds in front with only Spies doing the same lap times, as Laconi and the Alstare Suzukis fought it out.

Haslam got his head down and put in some laps that matched Haga as he pulled his way through the field and caught Kagayama who was passed by Laconi. Haslam then stuck behind the Japanese rider and tried a pass into turn one with seven laps to go but ran wide.
The former HM Plant Honda man then gathered himself and two laps later put the same move on Kagayama for fourth place but Laconi was then four seconds up the road and Haslam didn't have enough laps to reel in the Frenchman.
Sterilgarda Ducati's Shane Byrne, who is riding with a nasty infection in his knee, had a race-long duel with Biaggi but the reigning British Superbike Champion had to give best and settle for 9th place. Kawasaki Broc Parkes got away well and wa scrapping with Byrne and Biaggu but settled for 10th, which he must be happy with.
Former Kawasaki MotoGP man John Hopkins finished in 11th place, besting the sole remaining Ten Kate Honda of Ryuichi Kiyonari and BMW's Ruben Xaus. Althea Honda's Tommy Hill was back in the points again, taking 15th place just ahead of Karl Muggeridge.
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