BOTH DUCATI XEROX MEN AIM FOR VICTORY WITH FRONT ROW STARTS
IN ASSEN QUALIFYING
Ducati Xerox Team riders Lorenzo Lanzi and Troy Bayliss
will be aiming for victory in tomorrow's Dutch Round of the
World Superbike Championship after clinching front row starts
in this afternoon's one-lap Superpole dash for pole. Lorenzo's
lap of 1m39.226s was six-tenths of a second behind the poleman
James Toseland (Honda), who set the new circuit best lap,
but it was good enough to earn him the second slot on the
grid. Troy Bayliss, quickest in both today's second qualifying
and free practice session, had to settle for third place on
the grid with a time of 1m39.256s, just a fraction behind
his Italian team-mate.
"Today we worked really well, I was able to do a lot
of laps both in the morning's qualifying session and in the
afternoon's free practice and physically I feel on top form"
said Lorenzo. "I didn't complete a long-run because we
already have a clear idea of the choice of tyres and I think
it will be the same for all the riders. To be honest I thought
that my Superpole lap wasn't enough for the front row, I reckoned
on doing at least 1m39s but I made a small mistake that slowed
me a bit. The track conditions had clearly got worse because
everyone, except for James, was slower than the times set
with the soft tyre half an hour before. I'm really pleased
with my result and ready for the races tomorrow."
"The front row of the grid is a good place to be here
at Assen, but everyone wants to be fastest and today I just
didn't put my lap together very well and made a little mistake
in the end" commented Troy. "But you'll see tomorrow
I'm sure we'll have a couple of good races, we did a lot of
laps on the race tyre today and it's going to be very interesting.
It's been very warm, but the track's in quite a good condition
with some rubber down. If it was ten degrees cooler it would
be a bit faster as well but it is what it is. We've got a
couple of tyres picked out, the situation is normal with one
tyre that everybody likes but it's going to be touch-and-go
for the race, and there's one where basically you're a few
tenths slower per lap, so we'll have to wait and see tomorrow
to see what everybody decides to go on."
Starting-grid: 1. Toseland (Honda) 1'38.603;
2. Lanzi (Ducati) 1'39.226; 3. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1'39.256;
4. Biaggi (Suzuki) 1'39.320; 5. Xaus (Ducati) 1'39.411; 6.
Corser (Yamaha) 1'39.422; 7. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1'39.648;
8. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1'39.928; 9. Muggeridge (Honda) 1'40.057;
10. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1'40.288.
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