TOUGH WEEKEND FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM AT VALENCIA

Valencia (Spain), Sunday 24 April: Round 3 of the World Superbike Championship
proved to be a difficult weekend for the Ducati Xerox Team as Régis Laconi
missed both races due to a crash in the morning warm-up, while James Toseland
did the best he could from a sixth row starting-grid position.

"Unfortunately it was a weekend to forget for us" declared Ducati Xerox Team
director Paolo Ciabatti. "This morning Régis was quicker than everyone in the
warm-up but his crash meant that he could not take part in the two races, in
which I am sure he would have given Corser a hard time. James on the other hand,
was unable to find the right direction in qualifying and this conditioned his
two races on Sunday. Now is the time to concentrate on Monza and focus all of
our energies on the next round, which is traditionally an important appointment
for Superbike and for Ducati".

Laconi was ruled out of the action today after a crash half-way through the
morning warm-up, when contact was made with a slow-moving rider on the outside
of the final curve. Laconi suffered concussion and was immediately examined by
on-circuit doctors before being taken to Valencia hospital for an MRI scan, and
for precautionary reasons a decision was taken for him not to race.

"I am fine but now I just need a few days to recover for Monza. It's a track I
like, we are at home and Ducati is always very fast" declared Laconi. "This was
a very big crash and I feel very lucky because I could easily have broken
something and been out of action for some time. I am obviously disappointed
because I wanted to take part in the second race, but I did receive a big bang
on the head and was unconscious for a few minutes so the doctors said it was
better that I didn't."

James Toseland finished eighth in race 1 from his 23rd grid position and 19th in
the second race after he had to make a pit-stop to change the front wheel
following a lap 4 incident caused by another rider.

"I was riding round with people I shouldn't be riding round with, given the
qualifying position" said Toseland. "I got a decent start again but going into
turn 4 a Yamaha came steaming underneath me and pushed me really wide. I was
lucky to stay on and then had to change the front tyre because the brakes were
locking up. Monza is the next race, we just need to find some traction because
there's not much wrong with the top speed of the bike. We're struggling and we
need to find the form again but there's nothing wrong with the bike and nothing
wrong with me. We rode hard in the first race but couldn't really do much more
after going off the track in race 2."

RACE 1:

 1. Corser (Suzuki)
 2. Vermeulen (Honda)
 3. Kagayama (Suzuki)
 4. Walker (Kawasaki)
 5. Haga (Yamaha)
 6. Gimbert (Yamaha)

RACE 2 :

 1. Corser
 2. Vermeulen
 3. Walker
 4. Haga
 5. Abe (Yamaha)
 6. Bostrom (Honda)

POINTS (after 3 of 12 rounds)

Riders
 1. Corser    141
 2. Kagayama  110
 3. Vermeulen  90
 4. Laconi     54
 5. Abe        44
10. Toseland   30

Manufacturers
 1. Suzuki   150
 2. Honda     93
 3. Yamaha    65
 4. Ducati    64
 5. Kawasaki  50
 6. Petronas   1