World Superbike Race started dry however the Monza circuit presented several treacherous wet patches due to the shade of the trees, but everyone started on slick tires.
Tom Sykes was in the lead on the third lap, when it started to rain and the race was immediately red flagged, but not before John Hopkins, David Salom and Sergio Gadea all crashed out at the Parabolica.
Marco Melandri also crashed out in the previous lap caught out by a damp spot seriously damaging his BMW at the same corner where Mark Aitchison crashed out on the warm-up lap.
Though the race was originally rescheduled as wet, – Melandri able to rejoin the starting grid as his team was able to rebuild his bike in twenty minutes – an impromptu riders’ meeting on the grid led by Carlos Checa, Melandri and Michel Fabrizio stopped everything with a small group of riders unwilling to risk racing in dodgy weather and above all, not completely trusting the Pirelli softer compound tires that the Italian manufacturer had cut during the night following complaints that none of spec tires were working and they were shredding after a few laps.
After discussions with Giulio Bardi and Paolo Ciabatti and Matteo Flammini, five representatives of the riders, Checa, Melandri, Max Biaggi – who suffered a technical issue on his new spec engine and had to pushed and pulled to his garage by a helpful Carlos Checa and wouldn’t have been able to rejoin if the race re-started – Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes went onto a track inspection with the organizers and then it started raining heavily, but only in certain areas of the circuit, which became flooded.
The race could have been shortened and run on full wets, but the organizers decided to cancel it all together for safety reasons.
