World Superbike

Imola: Ducati Friday report

Toseland & Laconi Sixth and Seventh for Ducati Fila in Tight Opening Qualifying Session at Imola Imola (Italy), 24 September 2004: Ducati Fila riders James Toseland and Regis Laconi were sixth and seventh quickest in today's World ...

Edited: Sep 25, 2004, 3:31 AM

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Toseland & Laconi Sixth and Seventh for Ducati Fila in Tight Opening Qualifying Session at Imola

Imola (Italy), 24 September 2004: Ducati Fila riders James Toseland and Regis Laconi were sixth and seventh quickest in today's World Superbike opening qualifying session at Imola. Fellow title-chaser Noriyuki Haga set the pace for Renegade Ducati ahead of Steve Martin (Ducati DFX) and Chris Vermeulen (Honda), but both Toseland and Laconi were within four-tenths of a second of the provisional pole sitter's time.

23-year-old Toseland was brimming with confidence after continuing with exactly the same set-up used on his 999 at Assen. "It was a good day" he declared. "I messed up on my first lap with a qualifier which put me in sixth but then I went for it on the second lap and the tyre was struggling a bit so I didn't improve. We're confident however, we've done some really good race times and the bike feels comfortable.

"We're going to make some small changes for tomorrow but it's just to try a few things out, because we've been consistently quick all day on race tyres It was the same as Assen really, a good start to Friday morning and we didn't change the set-up one bit."

Team-mate Laconi was also pleased with his first day performance despite complaining of traffic during his quick laps. "The problem was a lot of traffic around the track and all the session I did maybe 2 or 3 clear laps" he commented.

When I put a qualifying tyre on, at the first chicane there was a slower rider and in the end I was faster with the race tyre than the qualifier, and that's not normal. We worked very well with the team to find a good setting, changing the bike quite a lot but we made good improvement and now we just have to see how things go tomorrow".

LANZI (DUCATI BREIL) ON THE PACE WITH PROMISING SEVENTH QUICKEST TIME IN IMOLA OPENING SESSIO N

Imola (Italy), 24 September 2004: Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Breil) powered to a promising seventh quickest time in today's opening qualifying session for the penultimate round of the World Supersport championship at Imola.

The 22-year-old Italian rider, sixth in the overall standings, looked competitive right from the start of this morning's free practice session and finished just over one second off the pace of pole sitter and title favourite Muggeridge (Honda).

"I'm really pleased with my performance today" declared Lanzi. "I used some tyres that I really liked and was able to set some good lap times.

"They were actually the tyres we have been using since the start of the season but which we didn't use at Assen and we suffered a bit. Here it shows they are going well because we are seventh.

"The Pirellis are going well, the bike also and the feeling is good. We are already lapping quicker than in the Italian championship round a few months ago, so it's looking good for the race on Sunday.

-ducati-

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