Ducati Brno test 2006-06-12

FIRST DAY OF MID-SEASON TYRE DEVELOPMENT TEST FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM AT BRNO

Bologna (Italy), Monday 12th June: Troy Bayliss set the quickest time for the Ducati Xerox Team on the first day of a three-day mid-season test at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic.

The Brno test, which is being held until Wednesday, has been organized by one-make WSBK championship tyre supplier Pirelli in view of the Czech round of the championship on July 23rd. Teams representing each World Superbike manufacturer (Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Petronas, Suzuki and Yamaha) are present, and almost all the top riders in the championship apart from Troy Corser (Suzuki), who had to remain at home after contracting chicken pox.

Despite a fall early in the morning, championship leader Bayliss was soon on the pace and the Australian ended the day with a best lap of 2m01.50s, a full second under last year's pole mark.

"Everything went well", commented Troy. "I haven't been here on a Superbike before but didn't take much time to get into the swing of things, despite a come-off early on which was nothing serious. I did a sort of long-run and set a 2m01.5 on race tyres so I'm pretty happy."

Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi completed the first day of the tests in eighth place with a time of 2m03.70s.

"Today could have gone a bit better" declared Lorenzo, "because I didn't use the tyre that all the others used to set their quickest times. However we've still got a couple more days here in Brno and a lot of work to get through."

-ducati