TOSELAND AND LACONI (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) BACK UP WITH THE FRONT-RUNNERS
PACE IN FIRST QUALIFYING AT MONZA

Monza (Italy), Friday 6 May: Both Ducati Xerox Team riders James Toseland and
Régis Laconi were up amongst the front-runners in today's first World Superbike
qualifying session in warm and sunny conditions at Monza. This time it was the
British rider ahead of his team-mate as Toseland finished fifth quickest behind
Gianluca Nannelli (Ducati SC), while Frenchman Laconi was two places further
down in seventh position.

Toseland was quite pleased with his form today after lapping in similar times to
Laconi but was convinced he can improve with a bit more traction. "I obviously
feel a bit better, it was a comfortable fifth place really although I feel
there's a lot more to come" declared Toseland. "We've still got a few little
problems with traction, especially coming off the Parabolica, which is a corner
where you can lose or make up two or three tenths easily. We also need to alter
the front forks slightly to give the tyre an easier time and gain more grip, but
apart from that minor problem everything else is fine. We used a qualifier with
25 minutes left to go and that was my fastest time" he continued, "because I
didn't want to risk running out of time again like in Valencia. Our set-up is
better organised this weekend, we put the qualifier on earlier and things seem
to be working out really well. Circumstances have made things look bad since the
start of the year, but it's not the case and we're not far away from the other
guys. I know where we are exactly in comparison with the Suzukis and if I raced
this afternoon I know we could hang in there".

Régis was not entirely happy with his seventh quickest time, citing a lack of
grip for his position in the first session. "I am not that pleased with my
position because we are missing grip both at the front and at the rear when the
conditions start to heat up. We tried a number of solutions but for the moment
we haven't improved much. Then with my qualifying tyre there were yellow flags
at the second chicane and I lost a lot of time. We really must improve in the
final split because we are just too slow there. In particular in the Lesmo curve
where the bike doesn't want to go where I want it to go. Together with my
engineers we'll have a good look at the problem and tomorrow I'm sure we'll
improve. I'm also a bit tired because it's the first time I'm racing since my
crash at Valencia. That's normal and I'm sure we'll go much better tomorrow."

TIMES:

 1. Corser (Suzuki)          1m47.878s
 2. Kagayama (Suzuki)        1m48.113s
 3. Muggeridge (Honda)       1m48.203s
 4. Nannelli (Ducati SC)     1m48.809s
 5. Toseland (Ducati Xerox)  1m48.846s
 6. Vermeulen (Honda)        1m48.849s
 7. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)    1m49.021s
 8. Pitt (Yamaha)            1m49.422s
 9. Walker (Kawasaki)        1m49.423s
10. Haga (Yamaha)            1m49.520s