The Ducati Xerox Team
completed its final pre-season testing programme with more excellent times
set by 2001 champion Troy Bayliss and his team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi. The
Australian, who returns to Superbike this season for the Italian
manufacturer after a three-year spell in MotoGP, continued the superb form
he has shown so far in testing since signing for the Ducati Xerox Team at
the end of last year and ended the two-day session at the top of the
timesheets with a time of 1m34.45s.
"The first time I tested here in November I did a 36 and now today on
the race tyre I did a 34.4 which is quite an improvement" declared Troy, who
covered 133 laps of the Valencia track on his Ducati 999F06. "Obviously I
feel pretty comfortable on the bike and things are going really well so that
makes me happy. The start of the championship is just around the corner and
we haven't had to change the bike a lot since I first hopped on it. I'm
feeling confident and I'm sure I'm going to be a contender for the
championship and especially for the race wins. It's been quite a while since
I've won so I'm a bit excited about that and can't wait to get one under my
belt. I'm very impressed with the bike and feel good on it. I haven't felt
this much at home for a long time!"
Lorenzo Lanzi (136 laps in two days) took a bit more time to settle
into the rhythm of the test, but made a big improvement on the second day to
end up second quickest on race tyres with a time of 1m35.6s.
"I felt that I rode well and am pleased with that, I made a good
improvement over yesterday when I struggled to get into the groove and back
onto the bike after a break of two months" said Lorenzo. "Today I did some
good times, on race tyres we're just two or three tenths away from Troy's
pace with 1m35s. The feeling with the bike is good and we learnt a lot these
two days so I now think we're ready for Qatar. The championship finally gets
underway in a couple of weeks time and it'll be great to get back to racing,
especially with the factory Ducati, and the prospects are looking good".
The 2006 World Superbike Championship gets underway on February 25th
at the Losail Circuit in Qatar.
Unofficial Times; (courtesy of Pirelli):
- 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.4s (Qualifying tyres - 1m34.3s)
- 2. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m35.6s (Q -1m35.4s)
- 3. Toseland (Honda) 1m35.8s (Q - 1m35.2s)
- 4. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m35.9s (Q - 1m35.4s)
- 5. Neukirchner (Ducati) 1m36.4s
- 6. Abe (Yamaha) 1m36.4s
- 7. Clementi (Ducati) 1m36.6s
- 8. Rolfo (Ducati SC) 1m36.6s
- 9. Borciani (Ducati) 1m36.7s
- 10. Foret (Suzuki) 1m36.9s
