World Superbike

Monza: Ducati Friday report

Laconi (Ducati Fila) Quickest Again in Friday Superbike Qualifying - Toseland Fourth Monza (Italy), Friday 14 May 2004: Regis Laconi (Ducati Fila) once again dominated Friday's World Superbike qualifying session, this time at Monza for round 4.

Published: May 15, 2004, 5:49 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Laconi (Ducati Fila) Quickest Again in Friday Superbike Qualifying - Toseland Fourth

Monza (Italy), Friday 14 May 2004: Regis Laconi (Ducati Fila) once again dominated Friday's World Superbike qualifying session, this time at Monza for round 4. Aboard his 999R F04, the Frenchman set the quickest time of the day in 1'48.701, three tenths of a second faster than championship leader Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1 Ducati). Laconi also recorded the top speed on the long Monza start-finish straight, clocking 309 km/h. Team-mate James Toseland was fourth, one second off Laconi's pace.

"That was not so bad today!" commented Laconi. "We are working well on the suspension of the bike, even though the track was different from last week's testing. We did a lot of laps with a race tyre, just like this morning when we almost did a race distance. I just put a qualifying tyre on at the end of the afternoon session but I am only two-tenths faster and I know I can do a lot better with a 'Q'. Monza is strange; if you push too much you lose time because the braking is so important. Maybe I am braking a bit too early and I have to try tomorrow to be a bit more aggressive for the fast lap with the qualifiers."

James Toseland, fourth in today's opening session, was quite happy with his time after making a few changes late in the hour. "I didn't have much rear grip for most of the session but we made a change to the ride height and the suspension and I was immediately half a second quicker at the end" he declared. "We need to go in that direction, the bike is now how it should be and it has been some time since I've felt that good. The conditions are not the same as in last week's testing and the Monza track can change quite a lot, but I feel happy to be going in the right direction. I was having to push hard in sixth before this change but now I'm comfortable on the bike in fourth."

TIMES: 1. Laconi (Ducati Fila) 1'48.701; 2. Chili (PSG-1 Ducati) 1'49.037; 3. Vermeulen (Honda) 1'49.655; 4. Toseland (Ducati Fila) 1'49.781; 5. Nannelli (Ducati) 1'49.911; 6. McCoy (Xerox Ducati) 1'49.962 ... etc.

TV COVERAGE Eurosportnews (Europe, via satellite): Sunday 16 May, 12.00 - 16.45 Superbike 1, Supersport, Superbike 2 (live); Eurosport (Europe, via satellite): Sunday 16 May, 00.00 (highlights). La 7 (Italy): Saturday 15 May, 1745 Superpole (delayed); Sunday 16 May, 1600 Superbike 1 (delayed), 1650 Supersport (delayed), 1730 Superbike 2 (delayed).

Fifth Place For Lanzi (Ducati Breil) in Supersport First Qualifying at Monza - Guareschi Seventeenth

Monza (Italy), Friday 14 May 2004: Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Breil) got his Monza weekend off to a good start, setting fifth quickest time in qualifying for round 4 of the World Supersport Championship. The 22 year-old Italian was in the top three for much of the session, before being nudged down to fifth, but he did have the satisfaction of recording the top speed of the day (292 km/h).

"We went pretty well" declared Lanzi. "Today I was fifth quickest but I'm happy with the way things went, until three minutes from the end I was second and I was running a good race pace. We used the same tyre for the whole session and we did a race simulation, while all the other guys at the end of the session fitted a softer tyre to set their time and three of them went quicker than me. At Monza the engine is really powerful and we have the top speed, tomorrow we'll try and improve the set-up just a bit more to take advantage of this in the race."

Team-mate Vittoriano Guareschi, on his return to the category where he has twice finished runner-up, had to settle for 17th quickest time.

"It's not easy to get onto the track for a 45 minute session, understand everything immediately, get all the work done, lap on tyres that for me are completely new ... and set a quick time!" declared Vitto. "We also changed the rear shock and that lost us another ten minutes or so. I went back out with three minutes to go, but unfortunately I had a bit of a slide and there was no more time to improve. However the bike was much better than this morning, I am pleased with the way things are going and confident I can improve in tomorrow's session."

TIMES: 1. Muggeridge (Honda) 1'51.939; 2. Foret (Yamaha) 1'53.116; 3   .
Charpentier (Honda) 1'53.159; 4. VD Goorbergh (Yamaha) 1'53.694 ; 5    .
Lanzi (Ducati Breil) 1'53.698; 6. Curtain (Yamaha) 1'54.235 ... 17     .
Guareschi (Ducati Breil) 1'55.32                                       .

-www.ducati.com

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 Monza: Ducati preview

Next article Monza: Ducati Saturday qualifying notes

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

3 h

GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend

Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 4 h

Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

8 h

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

8 h

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

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