LACONI TAKES FRONT ROW START FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM AT MONZA WITH
TOSELAND ONE ROW BEHIND

Monza (Italy), Saturday 7 May: Ducati Xerox Team riders Régis Laconi and James
Toseland both produced positive performances today in the second and final day
of qualifying for round 4 of the World Superbike Championship at Monza.
Frenchman Laconi showed no ill-effects from his Valencia crash by slotting in
third quickest time of 1m47.885s in Superpole, while his British team-mate James
Toseland received a confidence boost with a row 2 start after clocking eighth
quickest time in 1m48.695s.

Laconi was particularly satisfied with his Superpole performance after
struggling to set good times on qualifying tyres during the day.

"We did a good job this weekend, especially to try to be fast over one lap,
because in today's two sessions we had big problems to do one lap on the
qualifying tyre and in fact I set my best time on race tyres this morning"
declared Régis. "We found some new settings for Superpole and the bike was then
a lot better to ride. OK, the two Suzuki guys were too fast but I did a good lap
time. We will see for tomorrow but I'm also happy about my lap times on race
tyres and I am feeling good. Now it's time for Ducati to come back and win, for
sure it won't be easy but we are in Monza, with all the Ducati fans behind me so
I will certainly try my best tomorrow".

Toseland has been back in the groove all weekend with a positive showing in all
practice and qualifying sessions, and although his Superpole lap only netted him
eighth place, he is feeling confident for the race.

"My Superpole lap was a bit disappointing really because I had a big slide
coming out of the Parabolica on my exit lap and started my one lap way too slow
so that was it for me. I'm feeling confident about the race however because we
had a good long-run in the afternoon's free practice session on race tyres. A
front-row start is not paramount here with all the slipstreaming so row 2 is OK
and we've certainly got a chance of a good result. I really love riding around
this circuit, it's the home of Ducati so we know we've got to do well tomorrow."

TIMES:

 1. Kagayama (Suzuki)        1m47.439s
 2. Corser (Suzuki)          1m47.446s
 3. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)    1m47.885s
 4. Muggeridge (Honda)       1m48.054s
 5. Vermeulen (Honda)        1m48.128s
 6. Pitt (Yamaha)            1m48.580s
 7. Walker (Kawasaki)        1m48.613s
 8. Toseland (Ducati Xerox)  1m48.695s
 9. Chili (Honda)            1m48.908s
10. Bussei (Kawasaki)        1m49.245s