LANZI AND BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) GET 2007 SEASON UNDERWAY
WITH FIFTH AND SIXTH QUICKEST TIMES IN QATAR FIRST QUALIFYING
 The
2007 World Superbike season got underway today for the Ducati
Xerox Team with fifth and sixth quickest times respectively
for Lorenzo Lanzi and Troy Bayliss in first qualifying in
Qatar. Times were almost one second off the pace of last December's
test session, but today's qualifying session was a hard-fought
affair as the top six riders were all within half a second
of each other.
Double world champion Bayliss took a bit of time to settle
into the rhythm and was not entirely happy with his first
day's performance.
"Everything is not going so bad, but we're having just
a few little problems like getting the bike to do exactly
what we want from when we tested here last time" he declared.
"The times are not really so bad, and we're not so far
off the front. It's just that everyone's riding really well
at the moment and I'm missing a little something and in these
conditions it doesn't take much to be down a couple of places
because everyone's going very fast. We've got a few things
to think about, especially at the front where we're struggling
a bit but we'll try them tomorrow and hopefully I'll be a
bit further up at the front.
Lorenzo Lanzi on the other hand was enthusiastic about his
fifth place on the grid and was confident there was more to
come.
"That wasn't bad for first qualifying but I can see
that our rivals have got a good race pace, especially Max,
Nori and James. We had a few problems like last year when
it started to get warmer in the afternoon and for our twin-cylinder
Ducati these are the worst possible conditions because you
start to slide around at the rear. I'm happy that we've still
got a few more things to try and I'm sure we can set a good
race pace seeing as we can make a few more changes to the
set-up. As for me, I feel much better after the winter, calm
and relaxed, we've done a lot of testing and that has helped
me to get back into form."
TIMES: 1. Haga (Yamaha) 1m59.019s; 2. Toseland
(Honda) 1m59.056s; 3. Biaggi (Suzuki) 1m59.369s; 4. Corser
(Yamaha) 1m59.440s; 5. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m59.459s; 6.
Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m59.507s; 7. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m59.805s;
8. Xaus (Ducati) 2m00.244s; 9. Rolfo (Honda) 2m00258s; 10.
Nieto (Kawasaki) 2m00.309s; etc.
TV COVERAGE: British Eurosport (UK): Friday
23 February, 1745 Superpole (as live); Saturday 24 February
0815 race 1 + race 2 (live). Eurosport (Pan European): Saturday
24 February, 1400 race 2 (as live); Eurosport 2 (Pan-European):
Sunday 25 February, 1100 race 1 + race 2 (delayed); La7 (Italy):
Saturday 24 February, 0930 race 1 (live), 1320 race 2 (live).
|
