Yanagawa pulls double podium duty at Monza.

Akira Yanagawa showed that the venerable four-cylinder Kawasaki still has what it takes on the fast tracks as he scored a pair of third places at Monza while team-mate Gregorio Lavilla suffered his second nasty accident in two years at the Italian track, thankfully this time without serious injury.

A brace of podium finishes at one of his favourite circuits gave Akira Yanagawa the perfect boost to his 2001 World Superbike Championship challenge as he lifted himself into fourth place overall at a track where the Kawasaki ZX-7RR can still mix it with the best of the more nimble two cylinder machines.

Had Yanagawa been able to make more of his third place on the grid in both races the Japanese rider might have been able to challenge for the top two steps of the podium, fiercely disputed by Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards all weekend. In both races Akira was one of the strongest men on the track in the latter stages as those around him encountered tyre trouble, holding off his Kawasaki team-mate Gregorio Lavilla and Aprilia rider Regis Laconi in race one and then passing Frankie Chili and Tadayuki Okada in the final two laps to take third in the second race.

"I know the bike is really fast in a straight line and now it is much better in every other area," said Yanagawa after race one despite feeling that he had chosen too soft a rear tyre for the conditions.

Akira was hoping for more in the second race but a tardy start left him eighth at the end of the first lap. Even so he ought back and passed Ruben Xaus, Neil Hodgson, Okada and Chili on the way to a well deserved third place and he is now looking forward to keeping up his form at Donington Park in two weeks time.

"This is a new start to the season for me and I am so happy to have two podium finishes this weekend," added Yanagawa. "My bike was really fast, but it wanted to go one way and I wanted to go the other, so it was a bit of a battle."

Lavilla also looked sharp at the place where he broke his pelvis last year and tailed Yanagawa home in race one after keeping Laconi at bay during the final laps. The Spaniard was running eighth in race two when he had a massive high-side coming out of the Parabolica on lap six and went skating into the gravel.

Initially the crash looked bad as the bike followed Gregorio into the gravel and beat him up slightly when they got there before exiting stage left over the inflatable barrier. Although Gregorio was carried out of the gravel on a stretcher he was not seriously hurt and will be fit and ready to ride at Donington Park in two weeks.