Bayliss really needed to do the double, whilst honours even would be enough for Edwards. There was no shortage of action at the Italian track and, as ever, it was the two class leading riders that provided much of it. Qualifying saw Edwards, on the lone Honda SP2, come out on top in pole position, but with Ducatis holding six of the next seven slots. Bayliss was third, with his team-mate Ruben Xaus just ahead and Noriyuki Haga fourth on the Aprilia. Row two was occupied by Neil Hodson, Ben Bostrom, James Toseland and Frankie Chili.

As anticipated, Edwards and Bayliss went straight to the front in race one, with the American ahead initially. Bayliss fought back during the first lap, but his opponent was in P1 again as they crossed the line. Behind them came Hodgson, Xaus, Haga, a fast starting Chris Walker (Kawasaki), Bostrom, Toseland, Chili and Alessandro Antonello (on a seventh Ducati).

As the early stages unfolded, Edwards was able to pull out a small gap to Bayliss, whilst the riders behind fifth-placed Haga also seemed to fall away from the leaders. Soon Xaus was past Hodgson for third, leaving the Englishman in a close battle with ‘Nitro Nori,’ and Bostrom moved ahead of Walker. Ruben closed up on the front two a little, while the field behind began to spread out, thanks in part to a bit of a ‘moment’ for Haga.

Before long it was clear that Colin and Troy were in a class of their own, trading fastest laps, and although the Ducati man stabilised the gap at 0.6s for a time, his rival then sped up and made himself a more comfortable margin. Bayliss was pushing hard but it wasn’t quite enough. The battle at this stage was for fourth, as Haga re-caught Hodgson, and behind them it was now Toseland from Bostrom, Chili, Broc Parkes, Gregorio Lavilla, Walker and Antonello.

As Bayliss began to catch back up to Edwards, the red flag was flown. The cause of the race stoppage was a crash for Hodgson, who, still under pressure from Haga, managed to lose the front of his GSE machine. The Ducati slid out from under Neil in the braking zone for the final chicane, and this meant race one would be decided on the aggregate of two parts. Hodgson would resume on his spare bike, as the positions were backdated to the lap before the incident.

At the restart, Edwards knew that he already had a margin of 0.7s over Bayliss, and could afford to finish just behind the Ducati man and still win. Troy got the jump this time, but the Honda was back ahead before a lap was completed, with Hodgson, Haga, Xaus, Toseland, Chili and Parkes following behind. This position changed when Hodgson made a mistake, which let the next two guys past, and then Xaus moved back through to third on the road, at the expense of Haga.

The leading pair again dropped the pack, but Troy was able to stay with Colin. Further back Hodgson once again came at sparring partner Haga, passed him for fourth, but was quickly repassed by the Japanese. Meanwhile, the ‘real’ race was hotting up, as the number one bike went into the lead. Bayliss’ tactic at this stage was to try and slow the race pace a little, so team-mate Xaus could catch up to Edwards and maybe help out by getting into second.

The Texan obviously didn’t want this to happen, so he attacked again, and retook the lead. Troy continued to fight on, and briefly repaid the compliment, before finally making it stick into the chicane at the end of the penultimate lap. That was how it finished on the road, but the aggregate result saw Edwards victorious, from Bayliss and then Xaus, Hodgson, Haga, Toseland, Chili, Lavilla and Parkes, with Bostrom and Walker having dropped back to tenth and eleventh, ahead of Antonello.

Edwards went into race two with a six point margin over his challenger, which meant that Bayliss had to win, but with someone like Xaus also coming in ahead of the Honda man. Based on the first race, this was not going to be all that easy, but the second start was promising for the Australian. This time it was Hodgson who was in front initially, but it was very short lived, as Troy came past almost straight away. Edwards was third, followed by Haga, Xaus, Toseland, Walker and Chili (who soon swapped position), with Bostrom, Hitoyasu Izutsu, Antonello, Parkes and Lavilla next up.

The early stages again saw the top five making a break on the rest, with Haga looking to make a move on Xaus for fourth. Hodgson, however, was only going backwards when both Edwards and Xaus passed him in quick succession. Positions behind Haga changed as Lavilla came from his earlier 13th to run ninth, whilst Walker’s Kawasaki disappeared altogether at this stage.

As Edwards took the lead away from Bayliss, the top three began to ease away from the Hodgson-Haga battle, as the gap between this pair also began to grow. Third-placed Xaus remained crucial to Bayliss’ hopes, and the Spaniard took the fastest lap away from the lead pair as he managed to catch up to them again. Soon after this, Bayliss suffered a twitch on his Ducati, allowing Edwards to pull out a small gap in the lead. A little way back Haga passed Hodgson for fourth, whilst the following riders were now shuffled with Toseland sixth from Chili, Parkes, Lavilla, Izutsu and Bostrom.

In a renewed effort, Bayliss now improved on the lap record to catch Edwards again, and this left Xaus a little way off the two rivals. Despite another twitch, Troy was now able to take back the lead from Colin, but Ruben was just too far away to do much for his team-mate. With five laps to go, Bayliss attempted to slow the pace down a little, and this led to some place swapping between the top two. Although Edwards got into the lead again, it was only briefly, and now Xaus was getting close again.

Edwards obviously knew that this could be costly to him, and he was once again back in front with less than two laps remaining. Xaus was unable to stay with the lead pair to the last, thanks to a broken clutch, but Bayliss was not done yet. On a thrilling final lap, Bayliss and Edwards swapped positions four times altogether, until the Australian had a bit of a moment, giving his Texan rival just enough respite to run out the winner. He also took back the title, of course, and there was no doubt he’d truly earnt it. Either one of them would have done.

Xaus managed to limp over the line and retain his third position, with the minor placings going to Haga, Hodgson, Toseland, Lavilla, Parkes, Bostrom and Izutsu. Frankie Chili was a late race retirement having run seventh on his Ducati. This site will bring you a season review in due course, as we look forward to seeing Colin Edwards defend his crown in 2003, quite possibly on a works Ducati.

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