Saturday Sep 30 2006
Superpole


Imola (Italy), Saturday 30th September: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) set a blistering lap of 1 minute 48.804 seconds in Superpole for tomorrow's Italian Round of the World Superbike Championship at Imola. The 37 year-old Australian, only sixth after the two qualifying sessions, knocked more than a second off his performance to take his fifth Superpole of the year and the twelfth in his career, outrunning second-placed James Toseland (Honda) by almost six-tenths of a second.

"We put a good lap together in Superpole but Imola is a really difficult track" declared Troy. "It's very technical and has a strange surface so we've been working hard with the bike to make it do what I want and honestly it took until the last session to find what we're looking for. Right at the end of the session, we found it and straightaway I just felt comfortable on the bike. I knew I was going to do a good lap anyway but wasn't sure about a 1m48. Now I'm really confident and I've done a lot of laps on the race tyre. The situation I'm in right now in the championship, I'm really happy with pole. We'll wait and see how it all goes tomorrow but it'll be interesting for sure".



Lorenzo Lanzi looked much more confident in the one-lap Superpole session as he recorded his quickest time this weekend but it was only good enough for tenth place on the third row of the grid.

"My lap in Superpole was not bad but it could have been better", commented Lorenzo. "It was my best lap of the weekend but it wasn't enough. Pity, because it means I start from the third row. However after my long-run in the afternoon session I am quite happy with the pace on my race tyre. I aim on getting a good start because at Imola it's not easy to overtake".

TIMES: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m48.804s; 2. Toseland (Honda) 1m49.394s; 3. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m49.433s; 4. Corser (Suzuki) 1m49.442s; 5. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m49.497s; 6. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m49.840s; 7. Haga (Yamaha) 1m49.856s; 8. Barros (Honda) 1m49.888s; 9. Xaus (Ducati) 1m49.958s; 10. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m50.081s.

TV COVERAGE: Eurosport (Pan European): Sunday 1 October - 1200 SBK race 1 (live), 1515 race 2 (live). British Eurosport (UK): Saturday 30 September - 1700 Superpole (delayed), Sunday 10 September - 1030 SBK race 1 + 2 (live). Eurosport 2 (Pan-European): Sunday 1 October - 2315 SBK race 2 (repeat). La7 (Italy): Sunday 1 October - 1430 SBK race 1 (delayed), 1530 SBK race 2 (live).