LACONI AND TOSELAND CLAIM FRONT-ROW GRID POSITIONS FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM AT IMOLA

Imola (Italy), Saturday 1 October: Ducati Xerox Team riders Régis Laconi and
James Toseland both claimed front-row grid positions for tomorrow ’s eleventh
and penultimate round of the World Superbike Championship at Imola’s Enzo & Dino
Ferrari Circuit.

With a time of 1m48.506s, Laconi was half-a-second off the record pace set by
poleman Chris Vermeulen (Honda), but the Frenchman clinched the second slot on
the grid ahead of championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki), while James Toseland
was just a fraction slower in fourth place with a time of 1m48.867s. Lorenzo
Lanzi, riding for the Ducati SC team but carrying extra Xerox logos on the
bike’s front and side fairings, completed an excellent day for the factory F05
machines around Imola with fifth place on the grid for tomorrow’s two races.

“It was a good lap and I am very surprised that I can ride the bike like that in
my condition because the right arm still has not enough power in the triceps and
I have to push hard with my legs and also with my left arm to stay on the bike”
declared Laconi. “I did 7 or 8 laps without getting tired and I hope tomorrow
everything will be OK because the team have done a great job to be fast this
weekend. We improved the bike a lot and it is now quite easy to ride. I have
also been working very hard with the physiotherapist in the last month in
preparation for this weekend. The first race will be hard, the second even
harder but I am very happy with the set-up and we made a great result today in
Superpole for Ducati”.

“I crashed yesterday and my main finger for the brake is not working so well so
I’m braking with my middle finger basically!” declared Toseland. “Chris did a
fantastic lap to take pole, I made a slight mistake in sector two on my
Superpole lap and paid for it, and maybe I could have been a couple of places
higher. It wasn’t a 48 zero but it certainly would have been better. We’ve got a
good race set-up for tomorrow and we’ve been doing consistently good lap times.
I think we can still be a bit faster but with the changes I’ve made I’m sure we
can be competitive”.

STARTING-GRID:

 1. Vermeulen (Honda)        1m48.075s
 2. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)    1m48.506s
 3. Corser (Suzuki)          1m48.649s
 4. Toseland (Ducati Xerox)  1m48.867s
 5. Lanzi (Ducati SC)        1m48.923s
 6. Haga (Yamaha)            1m49.094s
 7. Kagayama (Suzuki)        1m49.271s
 8. Bostrom (Honda)          1m49.300s
 9. Pitt (Yamaha)            1m49.601s
10. Muggeridge (Honda)       1m49.845s