LACONI (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) SHADOWS CORSER (SUZUKI) ON DAY 1 OF
VALENCIA WORLD SUPERBIKE TESTING

Valencia (Spain), Saturday 12 March: Régis Laconi (Ducati Xerox Team) was just a
fraction slower than Qatar winner and early pace-setter Troy Corser (Suzuki) on
the opening day of a two-day official World Superbike Championship test session
at Valencia, Spain. The Frenchman’s time of 1m36.147s put him ahead of the Ten
Kate Honda duo of Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge.

Team-mate James Toseland was eighth quickest today on his Ducati 999 after a
crash in the afternoon session meant that he was the only top rider who was
unable to improve on his morning’s time.

“We worked a lot on the bike settings today because we didn’t test in the dry on
this track in February and I am quite pleased with the way things went” declared
Laconi. “We’re still missing a lot of grip at the rear and the bike is sliding
around quite a lot, but we changed the suspension to try and get the best
possible compromise without losing too much elsewhere on the bike. I set a good
time on qualifying tyres, but I didn’t get the chance to try another tyre
because another rider had an engine problem in front of me and I didn’t want to
take any risks”.

“I don’t know the reason for the crash because I was going through the chicane
on my ‘in’ lap and the bike just went round and slammed me on the floor”
declared Toseland. “I was a bit frustrated about that because there were no
problems with the test until that setback. Everyone has been struggling with the
grip today, I’ve never witnessed that around here in the dry. We stuck the
qualifiers on and the time certainly looks better, while on race pace we’re not
too far away but as far as everything else goes, it’s just been a bit frustrating”.

TIMES:

 1. Corser (Suzuki)         1m35.911s
 2. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)   1m36.147s
 3. Vermeulen (Honda)       1m36.411s
 4. Muggeridge (Honda)      1m36.913s
 5. Cardoso (Yamaha)        1m37.191s
 6. Haga (Yamaha)           1m37.256s
 7. Gimbert (Yamaha)        1m37.447s
 8. Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 1m37.476s
 9. Kagayama (Suzuki)       1m37.498s
10. Pitt (Yamaha)           1m37.543s