BOTH DUCATI XEROX MEN AIM FOR VICTORY WITH FRONT ROW STARTS IN ASSEN QUALIFYING
(28-04-2007)
Assen (Netherlands), Saturday 28 April: Ducati Xerox Team riders Lorenzo Lanzi and Troy Bayliss will be aiming for victory in tomorrow's Dutch Round of the World Superbike Championship after clinching front row starts in this afternoon's one-lap Superpole dash for pole.
Lorenzo's lap of 1m39.226s was six-tenths of a second behind the poleman James Toseland (Honda), who set the new circuit best lap, but it was good enough to earn him the second slot on the grid. Troy Bayliss, quickest in both today's second qualifying and free practice session, had to settle for third place on the grid with a time of 1m39.256s, just a fraction behind his Italian team-mate.
"Today we worked really well, I was able to do a lot of laps both in the morning's qualifying session and in the afternoon's free practice and physically I feel on top form" said Lorenzo. "I didn't complete a long-run because we already have a clear idea of the choice of tyres and I think it will be the same for all the riders. To be honest I thought that my Superpole lap wasn't enough for the front row, I reckoned on doing at least 1m39s but I made a small mistake that slowed me a bit. The track conditions had clearly got worse because everyone, except for James, was slower than the times set with the soft tyre half an hour before. I'm really pleased with my result and ready for the races tomorrow."
"The front row of the grid is a good place to be here at Assen, but everyone wants to be fastest and today I just didn't put my lap together very well and made a little mistake in the end" commented Troy. "But you'll see tomorrow I'm sure we'll have a couple of good races, we did a lot of laps on the race tyre today and it's going to be very interesting. It's been very warm, but the track's in quite a good condition with some rubber down. If it was ten degrees cooler it would be a bit faster as well but it is what it is. We've got a couple of tyres picked out, the situation is normal with one tyre that everybody likes but it's going to be touch-and-go for the race, and there's one where basically you're a few tenths slower per lap, so we'll have to wait and see tomorrow to see what everybody decides to go on."
|
