Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) shrugged off sweltering temperatures at the Misano World Circuit to clinch provisional pole position in Friday qualifying. The 38 year-old Australian let all his rivals do all the work for much of the session before slipping in a quick time of 1m36.479s in the last few minutes to take the top slot. Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi on the other hand was out of luck in the final stages as he slipped down from a provisional sixth to tenth place at the end of the session.
"Sometimes I wonder why you go testing because you're a second and a half slower than what you were in the test. They've resurfaced the track and it's 20° hotter as well so you might as well just go to the beach!" joked Troy. "Apart from that it went OK. My best lap was still half a second slower than what I did on my last lap of the long-run when we came here so of course I'm not so happy about that. It can't be faster anyway when the conditions are like this. It's really hot out there, almost 50° on the track, but there's a lot of wind as well and there's no feeling at all down the fast right on the back straight but everyone's in the same boat and we just have to get on with it. I'm worn out because we're trying to get the bike setting better from the one in the tests which didn't work well".
"I expected a bit better because of the good results we did in the tests here a short time ago" declared Lorenzo. "It's a lot hotter here now and we struggled a bit with the bike setting because we had to change a lot of things. Then five minutes from the end I was sixth with a good time. The others put on softer new tyres and I didn't because I think that the track will be quicker tomorrow morning and I'm keeping an extra set of tyres to do a good time. It's going to be tough for the race because it's difficult to pass here, although the long fast right is really exciting in fifth gear and much better than before. I like this track but the important thing is to get things set up right tomorrow morning for the race."
A Ducati For World Champion Swimmer Filippo MagniniFilippo Magnini, Italy's two-times world 100 metre freestyle swimming champion received a special gift on Friday during the first day of World Superbike action at the Misano World Circuit. Thanks to his sponsor Arena, he picked up the keys of a brand-new red Ducati 1098, the latest Superbike to come out of the Borgo Panigale factory, from WSBK champion Troy Bayliss.
Times: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m36.479s
2. Corser (Yamaha) 1m36.524s
3. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m36.803s
4. Xaus (Ducati) 1m36.879s
5. Haga (Yamaha) 1m37.453s
6. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m37.512s
7. Toseland (Honda) 1m37.522s
8. Fabrizio (Honda) 1m37.594s
9. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m37.645s
10. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m37.692s
TV Coverage (UK) Eurosport 2:Saturday 16 June, 17:00 Superpole (delayed)
Sunday 17 June, 11:50 Race 1 (live), 15:20 Race 2 (live)
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