Monza Qualifying
STEADY START FOR BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) AT MONZA
Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) got his Monza World Superbike
weekend underway with seventh quickest time in Friday first
qualifying. The Australian, who has scored three double victories
at Monza, was almost one second off the pace of provisional
poleman James Toseland (Honda). Lorenzo Lanzi had a disappointing
day, the 25-year-old Italian struggling to get to grips with
the high-speed track.
"All is going OK actually" declared Troy. "We
did a lot of laps and I did that time on the thirteenth or
fourteenth lap which was OK but still we just need to realise
a few things that we haven't done that we had last year so
I'm confident in a couple of things we've got for tomorrow
morning on the race set-up and I'm looking forward to getting
out on the bike again to tell the truth. My top speed is pretty
good as well, we've been working on that, just got to improve
a bit of the feeling on the initial brake and we've got a
little bit of movement in the fast right-hander but we've
got a couple of good ideas in the morning and we're pretty
keen".
"For sure I am not happy with today's performance, whenever
I come to Monza it seems that I always struggle" commented
Lorenzo. "In my opinion this track is one of the worst
for my riding style. I'm giving my everything, the bike is
fine, but the thing that I'm really not happy about is that
I am almost two seconds slower than Toseland. This year it
has never happened, not even when my team-mate set pole, at
the most I was six or seven tenths off the pole. Now we will
have to modify something on the bike to help me adapt my riding
style on this track. I think we'll change a few things both
in the front and at the rear like the ride height and the
springs, to help me get a better feeling."
TIMES: 1. Toseland (Honda) 1m45.953s; 2.
Haga (Yamaha) 1m46.316s; 3. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m46.462s;
4. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m46.548s; 5. Brookes (Honda) 1m46.686s;
6. Xaus (Ducati) 1m46.775s; 7. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m46.918s;
8. Rolfo (Honda) 1m46.960s; 9. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m46.972s;
10. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m47.125s.
TV Coverage : Eurosport 2 (Europe) Sunday
13 May, 1515 race 2 (delayed). Eurosport (Italy) Saturday
12 May, 1945 Superpole (delayed); Sunday 13 May, 1200 race
1 (live), 2000 race 2 (delayed). La7 (Italy) Saturday 12 May,
1550 Superpole (live); Sunday 13 May, 1150 race 1 (live),
1525 race 2 (live). RAI2 (Italy) Sunday 13 May, 1730 races
1 + 2 (highlights).
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