BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) SMASHES SEVEN-YEAR-OLD PHILLIP
ISLAND LAP RECORD TO GRAB SECOND POLE OF THE YEAR ON THE DUCATI
999F06
Phillip Island (Australia), Saturday 4 March: Troy Bayliss
smashed Phillip Island's seven-year-old record lap time to
take a second successive pole position of the year on the
Xerox-backed factory Ducati 999 machine. In scintillating
form throughout the weekend, the 36-year-old Australian was
quickest in every practice and qualifying session and clinched
pole with a time of 1m32.159s, a full second faster than Troy
Corser's 1999 mark. Bayliss's Superpole lap also made it three
world champions in the top three positions as he lines up
with Corser (Suzuki) and James Toseland (Honda) alongside
him, while Steve Martin completed the front row for the Petronas
team.
"It's very nice to be on pole back here at Phillip Island,
at the moment I'm having a bit of a dream run" declared
Troy. "Everything's gone well today, my lap was good
enough to take pole, but honestly I thought I was going to
do a little bit better. It was messy and I had my feet in
the wrong place in a few spots, but I'm happy. I'm not kidding
myself however because I realise how hard tomorrow is going
to be, with two long races and plenty of heat out there. I
really need to get a good start if I want to try and do something
special, but Phillip Island makes for great racing and it
tends to bring the top few guys together and you end up having
a race and then it gets sorted out at about two-thirds distance".
Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi made progress in the morning's second
session, when he qualified 15th, and the Italian followed
that up with ninth quickest time in Superpole, which was good
enough for the third row of the grid. "It has been a
very difficult weekend for me" said Lorenzo. "We
started off well on Friday morning then we encountered a bit
of difficulty. I made a few changes on the bike, which didn't
take us in the right direction but now it seems that I have
got it more to my liking. I made a few errors in Superpole,
without them I might have been able to get on the front row,
or at least the second. So all things considered I'm in a
better position than I was this morning. Hopefully I can get
a good start, because the most important thing is to start
with a win in mind or at least a good placing. It's going
to be tough seeing as the two Troys are in such great form
on this track, but my aim is to stay in the second group and
do a good race starting from the third row".
STARTING-GRID: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox)
1m32.159s; 2. Corser (Suzuki) 1m32.373s; 3. Toseland (Honda)
1m33.003s; 4. Martin (Petronas) 1m33.206s; 5. Barros (Honda)
1m33.373s; 6. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m33.571s; 7. Pitt (Yamaha)
1m33.598s; 8. Haga (Yamaha) 1m33.631s; 9. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox)
1m33.791s; 10. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m33.928s; etc.
TV COVERAGE: Eurosport (Pan European): Sunday
5 March - 0200 SBK race 1 (live), 0730 SBK race 2 (delayed);
Eurosport 2 (Pan European): Sunday 5 March - 1545 SBK race
1 (delayed), 1715 SBK race 2 (delayed). La7 (Italy): Sunday
5 March - from 1400 onwards SBK races 1+2 (delayed). Fox Sports
(Australia): Saturday 4 March - 1545 Superpole (live); Sunday
5 March - from 1130 onwards SBK races 1+2 (live).
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