Troy Bayliss grabbed third place on the grid for tomorrow's German Round of the World Superbike Championship in an exciting Superpole session held in poor weather conditions at the EuroSpeedway. Troy will start the two races from the front row behind surprise poleman Fonsi Nieto and Regis Laconi. Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi lines up on the third row of the grid in eleventh place. Everyone went out on slicks in the first four dry minutes of the session, but the only riders to complete a full lap before the rain fell were the Kawasaki duo. Bayliss stalled his 999 at the end of the pit-lane before setting off on his dry lap, which as a result he was unable to complete, but he then made up for it by being the quickest rider on rain tyres.
"It was pretty hairy out there but the whole day's been a little bit like that to tell the truth" declared Troy. "This afternoon in that session, with 50 minutes and 12 laps to do, for sure I would have been with Fonsi and Regis. I was ready to go right away but I forgot my earplugs and stalled right at the start so I missed that first opportunity to get out there. I honestly thought when it started raining that everyone had put a good lap in except for me and I was just waiting for Tardozzi to have a go at me when I came in! But only a couple of guys had set a good time and I was so lucky. Anyway I didn't do that bad in the rain, it was dodgy for everybody. You had to stick your chin out to put a good lap in and then towards the end of the session it got even worse. Hopefully it'll be a bit nicer tomorrow but I'm feeling comfortable with the rain and in the dry so we're looking forward to having a good day tomorrow".
"It's a pity that my bike wasn't ready with the slick tyres at the start of the session because I would have gone out right away just like all the other guys" commented Lorenzo. "Afterwards I tried to do the laps in the wet but on this track it's very difficult because it's so slippery, you can hardly stay upright and you can see that by the amount of crashes there have been this weekend. Tomorrow's races will be a bit of an unknown factor, especially because of the uncertain weather conditions, but we've worked well throughout the weekend and I'm in a good situation both for the dry and for the wet. The races, at 24 laps, will be long, I'll have to get a good start and try my hardest to get the best possible results".
Times:
1. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m50.681s
2. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m54.559s
3. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m55.196s
4. Corser (Yamaha) 1m55.360s
5. Biaggi (Suzuki) 1m56.746s
6. Xaus (Ducati) 1m57.271s
7. Toseland (Honda) 1m57.384s
8. Haga (Yamaha) 1m57.782s
... 11. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 2m01.899s.
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