TOSELAND TAKES SECOND PLACE IN SUPERPOLE FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM – THIRD
ROW START FOR LACONI

Brno (Czech Republic), Saturday16 July: James Toseland (Ducati Xerox Team)
produced his best qualifying performance of the year at the Brno circuit in the
Czech Republic as he powered his Ducati 999F05 to second place on the grid. The
reigning world champion, sporting a new totally shaved head look, was only ninth
after the regular two qualifying sessions but he held on to the top slot with a
time of 2m03.180s until the championship leader Troy Corser went quicker towards
the end. Team-mate Régis Laconi was not so fortunate, the Frenchman only
qualifying ninth in Superpole and he will start from the third row of the grid
in tomorrow’s two 20-lap races.

“It’s my first front row of the year and I’m overjoyed!” declared Toseland. “I
‘ve been close a number of times on the second row but not quite there. Pole
position would have been nice but Troy pulled out a fantastic lap. The team’s
worked really well this weekend, I had a good test one month ago and I knew that
we could be competitive. It’s going to be a difficult race but I’ve got a good
set-up and I’m confident for tomorrow. This place is really strange, when it’s
cool in the morning the times are really good and the tyres work well but as
soon as the temperature goes up, everyone starts to have problems and not many
people went faster in the afternoon. We just worked with that, I’ve done a lot
of laps this weekend to get used to how it’s going to be in the races tomorrow
and I think we’ve got as good a package as anyone out there.”

“I made some little mistakes on my Superpole lap in a couple of places and lost
time there. I thought I could do a 03.4s lap if everything was perfect but I
didn’t do it and I’m not so happy” declared Laconi. “Row 3 is not such a good
start but the race will be different for sure. We need to change one more thing
with the gearing to be faster so I will speak with my engineers soon and maybe
we will change that for tomorrow. I am sure I can do well in the races, on the
race tyre we have to stay constant on around 2m04s for minimum 4 or 5 laps,
which is the important thing. I’m quite confident about the bike, but this track
is strange because you cannot be sure about the feeling and then you have to
make changes. I really have to push immediately at the start to go to the front
because if one or two riders get away then it is finished.”

STARTING-GRID:

 1. Corser (Suzuki)          2m02.694s
 2. Toseland (Ducati Xerox)  2m03.180s
 3. Neukirchner (Honda)      2m03.214s
 4. Vermeulen (Honda)        2m03.247s
 5. Muggeridge (Honda)       2m03.252s
 6. Walker (Kawasaki)        2m03.429s
 7. Kagayama (Suzuki)        2m03.473s
 8. Cardoso (Yamaha)         2m03.492s
 9. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)    2m03.756s
10. Checa (Yamaha)           2m03.913s