BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) PASSES FIRST QUALIFYING TEST WITH
FLYING COLOURS
Valencia (Spain), Friday 13 April: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox)
passed the first test since his Donington crash with flying
colours, the Australian bouncing back from injuries received
a fortnight ago to set the quickest time in both free practice
and qualifying at Valencia. After being given the OK to ride
by circuit medics late yesterday afternoon, Bayliss eased
himself back into the swing of things in the morning with
fastest time and then set a new circuit best lap in the afternoon
with a time of 1m34.599s, half-a-second quicker than Neil
Hodgson's 2003 record.
Despite some discomfort in both his injured hand and groin
area, Troy was relieved to find that his performance out on
the track had not been affected. "Everything's going
good" he declared. "I think the track is not in
such a good condition for grip so we did OK considering. I've
done better laps in testing before but on the race tyre it's
as good as we've ever done and I'm happy with that, considering
that I'm not in the best of shape. Honestly it's a little
bit awkward with my hand but it's not actually affecting me
which I'm happy about. The other bits and pieces are tender
and I'm taking the right precautions to try and help everything.
I can't say I'm feeling fit but the last month I've been very
healthy and this has all helped me to get back into shape
and into a good condition. My riding style is exactly the
same, nothing's changed!".
Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was seventh quickest today, but not
that far off the pace of second and third placed men Ruben
Xaus (Ducati) and James Toseland (Honda). "I didn't go
too bad but not as quick as during the winter tests when I
was never out of the top 3 or 4", commented Lorenzo.
"We concentrated mainly on getting the right set-up for
Sunday, when it will possibly be dry. We tested several tyres
for the race distance and the pace wasn't great but I saw
that even the other guys were struggling a bit as well. We
always used one bike to try and get the best from the hard
tyre at the front and when we put a softer tyre on the other
bike, we didn't use it in the end because we preferred to
continue to work on this one, which was giving good results.
However I'm up near the front and the starting-grid will be
decided tomorrow."
Times: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.599s;
2. Xaus (Ducati) 1m35.147s; 3. Toseland (Honda) 1m35.147s;
4. Haga (Yamaha) 1m35.440s; 5. Biaggi (Suzuki) 1m35.453s;
6. Corser (Yamaha) 1m35.483s; 7. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m35.709s;
8. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m35.767s; 9. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m35.804s;
10. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m35.814s; etc.
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