Ducati Sporting Club UK > Sport > Race > Ducati Press Release - WSB - Assen Superpole

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Saturday Sep 2 2006
Superpole

DUCATI XEROX AT ASSEN: BAYLISS ON FRONT ROW, TENTH PLACE FOR LANZI

Assen (Netherlands), Saturday 2 September: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) will start from the front-row of the grid for the ninth round of the World Superbike Championship at Assen tomorrow after setting fourth quickest time in Superpole. Despite being quickest in both qualifying sessions, Troy's one-lap dash for pole wasn't one of his best and he will start the two races behind polesitter Troy Corser (Suzuki), Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki). Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was also quick in qualifying but made a mistake in Superpole and will start from row 3.

"The whole weekend has been looking really good so far, we've been quickest in most of the sessions and not much has really gone wrong" declared Troy. "We made a good long-run this afternoon and even though my Superpole lap wasn't great, I'm happy to be on the front row because this place has never been a great place for overtaking, even when there was the old circuit. In racing every day is a new day and you never know what's going to happen, especially at Assen where tomorrow we could get any sort of weather. We've had no wet practice so we'll just see how things are for the race tomorrow morning".

"We've been up at the front all weekend, it was a real pity that I made an error in Superpole" commented Lorenzo. "I touched the gearshift pedal, which caused the bike to cut out and I had a nasty moment when it went out of control. Luckily I managed to stay upright and finish the lap but I'm obviously not satisfied because there's a big difference between the first and the third row. With the long-run things were fine and as for tyre choice, everything's OK, we have some clear ideas and I feel sure we can do a couple of good races. The only thing is that tomorrow the forecast is for rain. Hopefully it'll be dry because we've got a couple more things to do in the warm-up to prepare for the race".

STARTING-GRID:
1. Corser (Suzuki) 1m38.965s;
2. Haga (Yamaha) 1m39.009s;
3. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m39.176s;
4. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m39.304s;
5. Barros (Honda) 1m39.419s;
6. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m39.543s;
7. Toseland (Honda) 1m39.565s;
8. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m39.756s;
9. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m39.958s;
10. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m40.149s; etc.

TV COVERAGE:
Eurosport (Pan European): Sunday 3 September - 1200 SBK race 1 (live); British Eurosport (UK): Saturday 2 September - 1545 Superpole (live), Sunday 3 September - 1130 SBK race 1 (live), 1745 race 2 (delayed). Eurosport 2 (Pan-European): Sunday 3 September - 1515 SBK race 2 (live). La7 (Italy): Sunday 3 September - 1430 SBK race 1(delayed), 1525 SBK race 2 (live). RTL7 (Netherlands): Sunday 3 September - 1630 SBK race 1 & 2 (delayed).