Ducati Xerox Team riders Régis Laconi and James Toseland both claimed front-row grid positions for tomorrow’s eleventh and penultimate round of the World Superbike Championship at Imola’s Enzo & Dino Ferrari Circuit.

With a time of 1m48.506s, Laconi was half-a-second off the record pace set by poleman Chris Vermeulen (Honda), but the Frenchman clinched the second slot on the grid ahead of championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki), while James Toseland was just a fraction slower in fourth place with a time of 1m48.867s. Lorenzo Lanzi, riding for the Ducati SC team but carrying extra Xerox logos on the bike’s front and side fairings, completed an excellent day for the factory F05 machines around Imola with fifth place on the grid for tomorrow’s two races.

“It was a good lap and I am very surprised that I can ride the bike like that in my condition because the right arm still has not enough power in the triceps and I have to push hard with my legs and also with my left arm to stay on the bike” declared Laconi. “I did 7 or 8 laps without getting tired and I hope tomorrow everything will be OK because the team have done a great job to be fast this weekend. We improved the bike a lot and it is now quite easy to ride. I have also been working very hard with the physiotherapist in the last month in preparation for this weekend. The first race will be hard, the second even harder but I am very happy with the set-up and we made a great result today in Superpole for Ducati”.



“I crashed yesterday and my main finger for the brake is not working so well so I’m braking with my middle finger basically!” declared Toseland. “Chris did a fantastic lap to take pole, I made a slight mistake in sector two on my Superpole lap and paid for it, and maybe I could have been a couple of places higher. It wasn’t a 48 zero but it certainly would have been better. We’ve got a good race set-up for tomorrow and we’ve been doing consistently good lap times. I think we can still be a bit faster but with the changes I’ve made I’m sure we can be competitive”.



STARTING-GRID: 1. Vermeulen (Honda) 1m48.075s; 2. Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 1m48.506s; 3. Corser (Suzuki) 1m48.649s; 4. Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 1m48.867s; 5. Lanzi (Ducati SC) 1m48.923s; 6. Haga (Yamaha) 1m49.094s; 7. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m49.271s; 8. Bostrom (Honda) 1m49.300; 9. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m49.601s; 10. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m49.845s.

TV COVERAGE: Eurosport (Europe) – Sunday 2 October, 1200 Race 1 (live), 0030 Race 2 (delayed). Eurosport 2 (Europe) – Sunday 2 October, 1530 Race 2 (live). La7 (Italy) – Saturday 1 October, 1700 Superpole (delayed); Sunday 2 October, 1150 Race 1 (live), 1700 Race 2 (delayed).