Round 4 , Monza (Italia), Friday 6th May 2005, Friday Qualifying
Circuit: 5,793km., Weather: Dry, sunny 26 C

TROY IN CONTROL AGAIN

Once again, at Monza today, Troy showed that he is the rider to beat. He
finished the first day of qualifying for the fourth round of this year’s
Superbike World Championship top of the pile and ready to go even faster if
required. Troy posted a time of 1:47.878, with his team mate Yukio Kagayama two
tenths of a second behind. Third quickest this afternoon was Karl Muggeridge
(Honda), with Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati) a surprising fourth.

TROY - 1st, 1:47.878

Well, I ended the day exactly where I wanted to be and that’s good for me and
all the whole team. We started the session today with the same set-up we used
when we tested here ten days or so ago and then just kept trying to improve it
little by little. There were no dramas for me at all today and the times I did
were pretty comfortable. If I have to go faster, I can - no problem. Exiting the
first chicane, it seems that I was the ‘wrong’ side of the ripple strip, but I
was just using as much of the track as possible! By doing that I was getting
good drive out of that chicane and then good speed going into Lesmo one and two.
The Alstare Suzuki is working really well here - you can see that because Yukio
is second quickest! This morning, I completed a race distance without any
problems and this afternoon about three quarters or thereabouts, so I have a
pretty good idea about tyres for the race already - as long as conditions are
the same or similar of course. In the past this track used to be all about
slipstreaming - especially at the end of the race - but since they moved the
finish line to the beginning of the start-finish straight it’s not so crucial
now. However, if there are a few riders all close together exiting the Ascari
chicane, it is still possible that the last of the group can win. But I do not
want to be in that position. For me, I’d like to exit the Ascari with about a
three-second or more lead. If I can do that, nobody is going to catch and
slipstream me.

Friday qualifying:

 1 Corser (Aus-Suzuki)        1:47.878
 2 Kagayama (J-Suzuki Extra)  1:48.113
 3 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda)     1:48.203
 4 Nannelli (I-Ducati)        1:48.809
 5 Toseland (GB-Ducati)       1:48.846
 6 Vermeulen (Aus-Honda)      1:48.849
 7 Laconi (F-Ducati)          1:49.021
 8 Pitt (Aus-Yamaha)          1:49.422
 9 Walker (GB-Kawasaki)       1:49.423
10 Haga (J-Yamaha)            1:49.520

TROY CORSER WEBSITE - http://www.troycorser.com