Toseland wins race one at Assen

Race resultsJames Toseland took a controlled victory in round nine of the World Superbike Championship at Assen in Holland, to keep up his record of winning at every track so far this season.

The 26-year-old Briton only briefly lost the lead to Ruben Xaus in the early stages but fought back on his Ten Kate Honda and eventually took his fifth win of the season and the 13th of his career by 0.663 seconds to more than double his championship lead to 28 points.

Toseland. whose result was his 50th podium finish, said: "It really can't believe how well this season is going. To do it at Ten Kate's home circuit too is brilliant.

"It was really difficult out there because no-one knew what the tyres were going to do, so I dropped back to third at one point, kept my fingers crossed that mine would hang in there and it did."

Toseland converted his pole position into an immediate lead at the first corner, followed by his title rival Max Biaggi and defending champion Troy Bayliss.

But Biaggi pulled his usual trick of starting well off the line and then dropping back into midfield during the opening two laps, this time falling to eighth on his Alstare Suzuki.

That turned the lead battle into a six-way fight between Toseland, the works Ducati pair of Bayliss and Lorenzo Lanzi, the Motor Italia Yamahas of Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga and Ruben Xaus' Sterilgada Ducati.

It was Haga, who started well down in 15th, who had the bit between his teeth as he charged into the lead on lap five and then fought for a handful of laps for the top spot with Xaus' year-old bike.

All the while Toseland was keeping a watching brief in third, ensuring he kept his tyres in good working order, and he and Bayliss shot to the front on lap ten, with the Brit going inside Xaus at the chicane and Bayliss following his lead two corners later.

And so it looked to be a two-horse race for the win, until Australian Bayliss ran into tyre problems that saw him forced to back off into fifth behind Haga, Corser and Xaus, allowing Toseland to back off and claim the win.

But just when it looked as if two Yamahas would be joining him on the podium Corser crashed out on the penultimate lap with a spectacular high-side that left the two-time champion dazed.

That promoted Xaus to third with Bayliss and his Ducati team-mate Lanzi fourth and fifth, and Biaggi winding up sixth after failing to make his usual fightback from his slow early laps.

Yukio Kagayama on the second Alstare Suzuki finished seventh - his best result since the horrifying Phillip Island qualifying crash that left him with a punctured lung - after coming out on top of a brilliant three-way fight between the Suzuki Germany bike of Max Neukirchner and Fonsi Nieto's PSG-1 Kawasaki.

Nieto took eighth after Le Mans 24 hours winner Neukirchner slid wide on the last lap and dropped to tenth - behind Roberto Rolfo's Ten Kate machine.

Corser's crash was great news for British rider Dean Ellison, who took the best result of his career in 14th on his Pedercini Ducati.

EuroSport