Troy Corser was on course to give Suzuki a dream start to the new season with a Superpole win, but a gentlemanly gesture to Regis Laconi dropped him to second.  Corser moved aside on his cooling-down lap when Laconi was on his charge. In the press conference afterwards, Laconi responded by thanking Troy for giving him a chance on his fast lap. Former World Endurance racer Sebastien Gimbert was third on the grid, once again proving the quality of the oft-neglected World Endurance scene. Corser's team-mate Yukio Kagayama filled the final front row position.

Japan roars back
Troy Corser won the rain-hit first race - a first part lead by 4.1sec enabling him to hold off Xerox Ducati's Régis Laconi, along with his Alstare Corona Suzuki team-mate Yukio Kagayama...but the race was not without a lot of incident, even before the start. Jose Luis Cardoso on the DFXtreme Sterilgarda Yamaha R1 had his engine cut out on the grid, and with the slipper clutches now used in WSB, even spinning the back wheel with a dedicated motor and "dumping" the clutch wasn't enough to get the engine started and he was out of Race 1. Pierfrancesco Chili ( (Klaffi Honda Fireblade) was also out with a technical problem after not even completing the first lap and Alessio Velini (Pedercini Ducati) blew his engine on Lap 8 and was also out - but the race was halted 2 laps later because of rain, with Corser holding a 4 second advantage...but Régis Laconi had taken the fastest lap.
With World Endurace Champion Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha France), Lorenzo Lanzi (SC Caracchi Ducati) and Max Neukirchner (Klaffi Honda Fireblade) crashing out of the second part of race one, the overall result went to Corser, with Kagayama coning second in an Alstare Corona Suzuki 1-2, Laconi third, 10 seconds ahead of Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Italia R1) in 4th.

Race 2 saw fast charging Ivan Silva Albertola (La Glisse Yamaha R1) crash at the first corner after being hit by Jose Luis Cardoso who also also crashed a few seconds later. Silva restarted but blew his engine later in the race. Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) attempted an inside pass on Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) but hit him with 8 laps to go in the race and both riders were out - and Fonsi Nieto (SC Caracchi Ducati) also stuffed Marco Borciani on the inside of a corner, with Borciani surprised enough to crash his DFXtreme Sterilgarda Yamaha R1.
Up front, Corser was having problems with grip from his front tyre and was first passed by team-mate Kagayama, then by Régis Laconi - and Kagayama went on to score his first win in World Superbikes.
The fastest lap was taken by Yamaha France's Sebastien Gimbert at 2' 01.852, who finished in 10th place.

Yukio Kagayama now leads the Championship standings with 45 points, Troy Corser in 2nd place with 41 and Régis Laconi is 3rd with 36 points

Full Results on the World Superbike Championship Official Site