2006 Superbike World Championship
SBK Round 10 – Lausitz (Germany) - Superpole
TOSELAND NETS A FRONT ROW START AT LAUSITZ
Having qualified tenth in the combined sessions, James Toseland
(Winston Ten Kate Honda) showed all his battling qualities
in Superpole to earn a hard-won front row start, from third,
for Sunday’s 24-lap Superbike races. He improved on
his previous best time in a full qualifying session by more
than a second and was comfortably faster than his previous
best on qualifying rubber this afternoon to boot. James’
team-mate, Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda), who had
out qualified Toseland after the two official timed sessions,
made a small error in the first split during Superpole and
that cost him enough to drop him to ninth position on the
grid, offering him a third row start.
Troy Bayliss headed the Superpole timesheets, with Noriyuki
Haga second, and thus the top three on the grid reflect the
top three in the championship chase. Toseland is closest to
leader Bayliss on points, and two ahead of Haga, and has to
shoot for wins on Sunday to claw back enough points to Bayliss
to carry the overall fight beyond Lausitz.
Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager
“Mixed feelings because on one side of the garage we
have improved quite a bit and James took it to third. Fairly
close to pole position, even. On Karl’s side we moved
a bit backwards. He didn’t go as fast as he has done
in previous practices, so that was a bit unlucky for him.
It means he’s on the third row. Anyway, on race set-ups
we are quite happy here. We want to do a bit of research tonight
to see if we can improve it a bit, but for sure the racing
will be tough and hard tomorrow. I don’t think anyone
can walk away with it, so there should be a big group battling
in a long, hot race.”
James Toseland – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(3rd Position – Fastest Lap 1’38.254 –
45 Laps)
“Before Superpole, it looked worse than it was. We
were doing OK in terms of consistency and then right at the
end we put a tyre in and we just didn’t get it together
on my final lap. So we made a few changes and I knew that
once we had got the qualifier in we would go well in Superpole
and I just had to hold it together for one lap and we did.
It’s difficult to pass here in traffic, but when you
are on your own you can get into a rhythm, and use lines you
need to use to go fast, rather than just stop people coming
past you. Troy has been fast all weekend, so we just need
to get off the line fast and stick in there.”
Karl Muggeridge – Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(9th Position – Fastest Lap 1’38.749 –
45 Laps)
“I just made a small mistake in my first split and
was almost 0.6 seconds down at that point, so it was a lot
to come back from. But I tried and didn’t make it, so
I’m not happy. It’s ridiculous being on the third
row when things had been going so well all weekend. It’s
not what we’ve been working for and not what we deserve.
I need to get a good start and then we have got a good race
pace. We just have to get away from the line well."
SUPERPOLE:
1. Bayliss - Ducati - 1'37.923
2. Haga - Yamaha - 1'38.079
3. Toseland - Winston Ten Kate Honda - 1'38.254
4. Pitt - Yamaha - 1'39.291
5. Lanzi - Ducati - 1'38.479
9. Muggeridge - Winston Ten Kate Honda - 1'38.749
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