Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) powered his way to a sixteenth Superpole win with a blistering new circuit best lap of 1m24.558s at an overcast Silverstone today. Slightly down on the first two sectors, Troy then went green in the final split to edge out Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) from the top slot by a fraction. Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi has also been on the pace throughout the weekend and he crowned a good qualifying performance with the fourth quickest time of 1m24.810s which puts him on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's two races.
"Actually it's been a little bit up and down for me all weekend" declared Troy. "We've been going around in circles a little bit, but now I'm back inside the circle and I'm starting to feel more confident on the bike again. I've been struggling really on the first split which is not such a difficult section but we finally got it right this afternoon. It's possibly going to rain tomorrow and that throws a spanner in the works for everybody. Our bike is working OK but we can only really use one race tyre, the hardest one, and honestly the grip's down on that. If anyone can get away with using the softer one it's going to make it difficult for us but I honestly think that after 15 laps anyone who chooses that tyre is going to be going backwards pretty quick."
"I'm really pleased with my performance today, here it's very important to start from the front row because there aren't many places to overtake on this circuit and it'll probably rain tomorrow which will create some more problems for everyone" said Lorenzo. "Over the past two days we've prepared well for the race in dry conditions, but haven't had much chance to try a wet weather setting. For the moment let me enjoy this front row position, which for me is very important. I felt that I went through that chicane in the second sector in a truly spectacular way, the feeling with the bike was perfect and I'm feeling confident about the races tomorrow".
Starting-Grid:1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m24.558s;
2. Haga (Yamaha) 1m24.577s;
3. Toseland (Honda) 1m24.621s;
4. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m24.810s;
5. Corser (Yamaha) 1m25.164s;
6. Xaus (Ducati) 1m25.299s;
7. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m25.597s;
8. Biaggi (Suzuki) 1m25.866s;
9. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m25.886s;
10. Brookes (Honda) 1m26.116s.
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