The opening round of the 2009 WSB championship series was held at Phillip Island earlier today and the new Yamaha R1 immediately showed its potential. After taking superpole, American Ben Spies put his Yamaha R1 on top of the box in race 2 after a close battle with Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga saw Haga finish second ahead of Leon Haslam (Honda).
In race 1, Spies quickly threw away the advantage of his pole position by visiting the gravel trap. Race 1 was won by Haga over second place Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) and Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki), who filled out the podium.
Haga has the series points lead. For additional details, results and points, visit the official WSB site here.
