LACONI CONFIRMS PACE FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM – UNLUCKY THIRTEEN FOR
TOSELAND AFTER SECOND HIGHSIDE

Valencia (Spain), Sunday 13 March: Two days of World Superbike testing at the
Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia confirmed that Ducati Xeroz Team’s Régis
Laconi is one of the pacesetters in this year’s championship, which got underway
two weeks ago in Qatar. Team-mate and reigning champion James Toseland continues
his early-season quest to find championship-winning form but a second highside
today left him outside the top 10.

After another five hours of testing today, Laconi and Toseland’s efforts to set
a quick time on qualifying tyres in the final minutes came to nothing as
Bostrom’s Honda crashed and caught fire, bringing the test to a end. Laconi, who
had kept a firm hold on second place behind Corser throughout the two days was
left with fourth quickest time of 1m35.881s.

“I am quite pleased with what we did in these past two days because we did a lot
of laps and everything we set out to do” commented Laconi. “We worked a lot on
my starts because we have to find the right configuration to start better. I
normally don’t start badly but in Qatar they were not so good. Here we did well
but it’s easy in testing, racing is another thing. In the afternoon we found it
difficult to improve our times, but what consoles me is that there were no
riders who did more than 7 or 8 laps in succession. We did 12 in a long-run
twice with the same tyre, at around low 37s, which is quite slow here. It’s
going to be a tough race for that reason when we come back here in April. All
things considered we are not that far from the top so I am quite satisfied”.

Toseland went away from Valencia with a bruised elbow and a sore head from a
second highside after an oil leak caused him to be pitched off his bike with
twenty minutes remaining of the morning session. The 24 year-old improved his
time in the afternoon to 1m37.183s, but that was only good enough for thirteenth
place.

“Today we set off pretty good, got down to some decent times but unfortunately
we had an oil leak and it flicked me off fast again, which makes it two crashes
in two days that were not my fault. I banged my head badly and so I’m sitting
here wondering what went wrong” he explained. “We got back on this afternoon and
on race tyres we are more or less as quick as everybody with low 37s, which is
quite good. We put a qualifying tyre on at the end but then there was an inferno
which brought the red flags out just as I started my last lap and that was it.
Everybody had done theirs by then so it put me in thirteenth, just like in
Qatar. Unlucky for me at the moment but it can’t last forever. I’m as fast as
anyone on race tyres and I promise that you won’t see me in thirteenth again
this year”.

This final official winter testing session at Valencia comes just two weeks
before round 2 of the championship at Phillip Island (Australia), while the
Spanish round will be held at the Ricardo Tormo circuit on April 24.

TIMES:

 1. Corser (Suzuki)          1m35.566s
 2. Kagayama (Suzuki)        1m35.698s
 3. Vermeulen (Honda)        1m35.724s
 4. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)    1m35.881s
 5. Muggeridge (Honda)       1m36.084s
 6. Haga (Yamaha)            1m36.347s
 7. Cardoso (Yamaha)         1m36.443s
 8. Pitt (Yamaha)            1m36.766s
13. Toseland (Ducati Xerox)  1m37.183s