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Silverstone: Ducati Friday report

BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) BOUNCES BACK FROM TWO QUALIFYING CRASHES TO TAKE PROVISIONAL POLE Silverstone (UK), Friday 26 May: It was an extraordinary first qualifying session for Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) at the Silverstone circuit as he bounced ...

Edited: Dec 11, 2006, 4:04 AM

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BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) BOUNCES BACK FROM TWO QUALIFYING CRASHES TO TAKE PROVISIONAL POLE

Silverstone (UK), Friday 26 May: It was an extraordinary first qualifying session for Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) at the Silverstone circuit as he bounced back from two crashes in difficult conditions to take the provisional pole position. The 37-year-old Australian, whose last Silverstone race was in 2002, albeit on the long circuit, ended up with a quickest time of 1m27.011s to head his closest championship rival Troy Corser (Suzuki) by a fraction. Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) took the other two top 4 places as four different manufacturers filled the front row.

"Two crashes in one session, you wouldn't exactly call that going to plan," declared Troy. "It's a typical British track, the sort of thing I remember from the British championship, you always encounter weather like this and it always makes for strange accidents. The first one was in the first series of rights before the back straight, I ran a bit wide but touched the wet ripple strip and it was like soap on a window. I went down quite hard on my hip but I was OK. I got going on the second bike and a lot of guys crashed on damp patches at the same corner, after you come under the bridge just before Priory. I went in and was looking at Toseland picking himself up, and then before I knew it the back came around and flung me through the air and down I went, cracking my head. James came and helped me up which was nice of him! I thought my session was finished but the guys had fixed the first bike which had mowed the grass basically and I got in a rhythm again and we ended up with the fastest lap which is what it's all about."

Lorenzo Lanzi also crashed out in the slow Complex part of the track 25 minutes into the session and was unable to make the provisional cut-off mark for Superpole.

"It's a pity because for the moment I'm just out of the Superpole," commented Lorenzo. "I went for a slide at the start of the session, where Troy, Toseland, Walker, Borciani and Martin all crashed so I'm in good company! The conditions of the track were very slippery but at the end we managed to recover a bit. The only problem was the others put on new tyres in the last ten minutes and we had used them half-way through the session so everyone improved at the end. That's probably the only small mistake we made. Tomorrow let's hope it'll be dry, I must get into Superpole, I've always gone well here in the past, it's a track I like a lot so I'm sure I can do it."

-www.ducati.com

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