World Superbike

Imola: Ducati Saturday report

Laconi Hits Top Form at Imola, Takes Qualifying And Superpole - Toseland Fifth, Lines up on Row 2 Imola (Italy), 25 September 2004: Regis Laconi clinched his fifth Superpole of the year for Ducati Fila at Imola with a blistering pole time of ...

Edited: Sep 26, 2004, 2:08 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Laconi Hits Top Form at Imola, Takes Qualifying And Superpole - Toseland Fifth, Lines up on Row 2

Imola (Italy), 25 September 2004: Regis Laconi clinched his fifth Superpole of the year for Ducati Fila at Imola with a blistering pole time of 1'49.818, edging out Chris Vermeulen by one-tenth of a second. The 29-year-old Frenchman, who had also grabbed quickest time in the dying seconds of the morning qualifying session, and his Australian rival, were the only two riders to dip into the 1'49s and will line up on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's penultimate round of the World Superbike championship together with Garry McCoy (Xerox Ducati) and Noriyuki Haga (Renegade Ducati). Championship leader James Toseland could only manage fifth quickest time and lines up on the second row.

"It was not exactly a perfect Superpole lap, because before the finish I slid a little" explained Laconi. "I had to push harder on that lap because Chris's time was a really tough one to beat. We have done a very good job all weekend and I am very happy with my race tyre.

"For me it's very important to be on pole position because I am half-Italian and Ducati is very close to here so I'm sure there will be a lot of fans trying to help me win the race tomorrow. I like this Imola track for sure, there are a lot of corners like the Acque Minerali where you can make a big difference. It seems a very good track for me and the Ducati is working very well also" he concluded.

Toseland was not so happy with his Superpole lap but is confident he will be able to produce a good showing in tomorrow's two races.

"That was a pretty average Superpole lap" commented Toseland, "I just wasn't able to get round Imola the way I would have liked. We seem to have got a few niggling problems that need to be sorted out, it's nothing major but if we sort them out the lap times would come easily, because I'm struggling in places where it shouldn't be a problem.

"The technical things aren't so much of a problem, I should just be able to find it easier around the track that's all. I'll probably change the gearing tomorrow morning which should help but I'm pretty sure that things will be OK for the race".

SECOND ROW START FOR LANZI (DUCATI BREIL) AT HOME CIRCUIT OF IMOLA

Imola (Italy), 25 September 2004: Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Breil) will start tomorrow's penultimate round of the World Supersport championship from the second row of the grid after a tense final few minutes.

The 22 year-old from Cesena, seventh after yesterday's first qualifying session, improved his time by almost one second and despite a technical problem forcing him to switch to the other 749R at his disposal, Lorenzo managed to hold on to the eighth quickest time.

"I would say it went pretty well" declared Lanzi "even though I had a problem with my 749R in the last few minutes. We quickly changed the bike, which was the same but it was not the bike I prefer to use and I didn't have a good feeling with it.

It wasn't a bad performance today because as always there are just the usual top riders ahead of me. We had to do a bit of improvisation in the last few minutes, but ours is a great team and we didn't have any problems. I held on to my second row grid position and I can only be pleased with that performance because we lapped two seconds quicker than when I was here for the Italian championship race.

"Without that small problem I am sure I could have been further up the grid. This gives me a lot of encouragement for tomorrow, I'll try and get off to a good start and then give 100% as always" concluded Lanzi.

-ducazti-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Imola: Ducati Friday report

Next article Imola: Saturday qualifying report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Marc Marquez puts his chances of retiring within three years at 70%

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

7 min

Marc Marquez puts his chances of retiring within three years at 70%

Audi hands F3 runner-up Freddie Slater F1 practice debut

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

43 min

Audi hands F3 runner-up Freddie Slater F1 practice debut

On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Brazilian GP

2 h

On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1

Raul Fernandez still compromised after Indonesia finger injury: “I’m not at 100%”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

2 h

Raul Fernandez still compromised after Indonesia finger injury: “I’m not at 100%”

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts