Motorcycling: Corser ends Suzuki's long wait by lifting Superbike title

Corser, riding for Belgium's Alstare Corona team, managed the unusual feat of taking his second world title almost a decade after he first won the Superbike title in 1996 on a Ducati.

Chris Vermeulen, riding the Winston Ten Kate Honda, beat Corser in the first race yesterday to be 55 points behind his rival.

Vermeulen still had a theoretical chance of taking the title with three races to go, but yesterday's second race was cancelled due to torrential rain, handing the championship to Corser.

Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga finished third, while Britain's outgoing world champion James Toseland had to settle for fourth place when he ran off the track on his Xerox Ducati.

Steve Martin achieved the best result of the season for Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas FP1 team when he claimed fifth place in his 100th finish in a World Superbike race. But he was not dismayed at being denied another chance to secure a top-six placing in the second event. "It was the correct decision to abandon the second race," Martin said. "There was no grip and a lot of standing water. This is the kind of circuit where, if someone crashes, the bike or the rider ends up in the middle of the track. As there was no vision, it would have been asking for trouble."

Valentino Rossi scored his 10th victory of the season in Saturday's MotoGP round at Qatar, but only after fellow Italian Marco Melandri had come close to his first win in the series.

Melandri pushed his Telefonica Honda inside Rossi's Gauloises Yamaha on the final lap, but ran wide on the exit from the corner and finished second.