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).
