From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 5 – Monza (Italy)
May 12th 2002

BAYLISS (DUCATI INFOSTRADA) NOTCHES UP SECOND SUCCESSIVE DOUBLE WIN AT MONZA – TOUGH WEEKEND FOR BOSTROM (DUCATI L&M) AND XAUS (DUCATI INFOSTRADA)

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) scored another sensational double win, his fourth of the year, in front of 82,000 fans in round 5 of the World Superbike Championship at Monza today. In race 1 the reigning world champion had a fantastic three-way scrap for victory with Hodgson (HM Plant Ducati) and Edwards (Honda), which became four when Troy and Colin overshot the first chicane on lap 10, allowing Chili (Ducati NCR) to rejoin the group. Bayliss then smashed the lap record to get back with the leaders and surged past Hodgson with two laps to go to take the win. In the second race of the day, Troy powered away from the rest of the leading group with six laps to go and took the chequered flag by 2 seconds from Edwards and Haga (Aprilia).

“I’m happy for the team and for Michelin because everyone did a great job. After going through the chicane, I had 4 seconds to catch up and so I did an amazing lap in the middle of the race. On the last lap I knew no-one could get near me after Ascari and the only place I was struggling was the two slight lefts where it’s impossible to pass anyway” declared Troy. “In the second race the track was a bit warmer and there was a bit of mud at the first chicane so the conditions were slower. Everybody played around for a little while but I put my head down and as soon as I had half-a-second lead I knew I had the win because the gap kept growing from there”.

Troy added “I’ve got the best team, the best bike and the best factory in the world behind me so I’m just doing my job, having the best time doing it and it’s all been absolutely perfect. I’d like to dedicate this result to all the Ducati fans out there but especially to the memory of Giovanni Mariannini, one of Ducati Corse’s veteran mechanics, who recently passed away.”

Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) recovered from a bad crash during the morning warm-up, in which he highsided off his 998 in the exit to the Ascari chicane, to finish a fighting sixth in race 1. But in the second race he was battling for fourth place when he crashed out at the first chicane on lap 3. “I got a good start in the second race and was going well, but then as I was going through the chicane the front end just turned in and the bike went away from underneath me” declared Xaus. “I’m pretty disappointed really, it hasn’t been a very good weekend after failing to qualify for Superpole, but I was going well in the second race and I’m sure I could have got onto the podium”.

Bostrom (Ducati L&M) had been expected to challenge for the win on the high-speed Monza circuit, but he had to retire from race 1 with transmission failure on lap 11. Ben had even more misfortune after the break, when he was slowed by electrical gremlins throughout race 2. “It hasn’t been a good weekend at all for me. We had a small problem in Superpole when we should easily have been on top” he said. “In the first race the bike had a small transmission problem that started in morning practice and we were unable to find it really for the first race. Then in race 2 an electrical problem started about half-way through lap 1, it was probably something simple. The bike ran well for one lap and we did the second quickest time of the race. All I can say is that the bike was set-up perfect and was definitely a front-runner, minus the gremlins. I think it could have won the second race for sure”.