RACE ONE

FOGARTY had a poor start and dropped to fifth entering the first corner. But he soon picked off Colin Edwards, Noriyuki Haga and Akira Yanagawa to trail Troy Corser by lap four.

And Fogarty needed just three more laps to pass Corser on the breaks.

There was no looking back from that point, although a slightly soft suspension had taken its toll on his tyres and Fogarty had been unable to stretch his lead to much more than a second.

Over the closing three laps Corser gradually closed that gap and had Fogarty in his sights on the final lap, having conserved his tyres the better of the two riders.

At one point Corser edged in front but Fogarty held the better race line and was able to hang on around the crucial Curva Brutatela for a thrilling victory.

The hours before the second race were anxious ones, the Supersport Race being abandoned just after the critical two thirds stage when a few drops of rain fell on the circuit.

FIRST RACE RESULT: 1 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 39m 57.687s, 2 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 39m 57.813s, 3 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 40m 08.622s, 4 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 40m 14.053s, 5 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 40m 17.892s, 6 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 40m 19.236s, 7 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 40m 19.408s, 8 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 40m 28.293s, 9 Vittoriano Guareschi, Italy (Yamaha) 40m 41.013s, 10 Peter Goddard, Australia (Aprilia) 40m 41.223s.

RACE TWO: Corser can't live with team-mate

THIS time Fogarty made pole position count and took an immediate lead.

Yamaha's Haga had the front to snatch first place on two occasions in the opening few laps, but only for a few seconds each time.

And when the Japanese rider pushed too hard in a tremendous battle for second place, to lose his front wheel and fall at a tight corner, another two-horse Ducati race was on the cards.

This time, however, Corser could not live with Fogarty who maintained a comfortable safety margin to win by six and a half seconds with Yanagawa again third.

Corser, who complained of a shoulder injury sustained in Albacete, said: "This time Carl was consistently pulling away. I tried to push but the tyres just weren't going to let me go."

SECOND RACE RESULT: 1 Fogarty 39m 52.554s, 2 Corser 39m 59.050s, 3 Yanagawa 40m 03.218s, 4 Slight 40m 09.891s, 5 Lavilla 40m 11.111s, 6 Chili 40m 15.057s, 7 Edwards 40m 19.665s, 8 Guareschi 40m 24.969s, 9 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 40m 47.587s, 10 Robert Ulm, Austria (Kawasaki) 40m 48.225s.

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER SEVEN OF 13 ROUNDS: 1 Fogarty 293, 2 Corser 238, 3 Edwards 194, 4 Slight 179, 5 Yanagawa 174, 6 Chili 119, 7 Haga 113, 8 Lavilla 91, 9 Fujiwara 83, 10 Guareschi 67.

MANUFACTURERS POINTS: 1 Ducati 327, 2 Honda 255, 3 Kawasaki 189, 4 Suzuki 142, 5 Yamaha 140, 6 Aprilia 58.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.