Despite the tricky track conditions, former World Superbike Champ, Troy Bayliss blasted his Xerox Ducati to provisional pole position, ahead of the first round of the Corona Extra World Superbike Championship in Qatar.
His lap time was 2mins 17.326secs, quite a long way off last year's lap record of 2mins 01.244secs, held by current World Superbike Champion Troy Corser.
The race track was still drying out after very heavy rain which thwarted much of this mornings free practice session.
Second fastest was former Ducati man, Regis Laconi with a time of 2mins 19.064secs. Laconi has made the move to PSG-1 Kawasaki for this season, and is on board the all new ZX10R. He seems to be adapting well to the in line four instead of the V-twin that he has raced in recent years. His team-mate, Chris Walker wasn't far behind him and took up residence in fourth place.
Troy Corser was the Suzuki meat in the Kawasaki sandwich, as he split the two green machines. Corser will have quite a task this season holding onto his number one plate with stiff competition on all sides, and a very full grid of highly competitive riders.
MotoGP exile Alex Barros qualified in sixth place on board the Klaffi Honda. Barros has a plethora of race experience under his belt and could be the man to upset the regulars this season. Hot on Barros' heels were both the Yamaha Italia riders of Pitt and Haga. They have had a good amount of test and development time on the R1 which looks like it is going to pay off.
The Winston Ten Kate squad of James Toseland and Karl Muggeridge were in eighteenth and thirteenth respectively. Toseland has been settling into his new team well and getting a good feel for the four cylinder machine – he has only ever raced v-twins at world level so it has been a bit of a change from him. Muggeridge has just become a Dad and is over the moon with the birth of his son Ryan. Both Ryan and his wife Isabelle are well after the birth.
crash.net [Edited on 23-2-2006 by domski]