Bayliss wins Superpole

Troy Bayliss is on pole for Saturday’s opening WSB round in Qatar after Friday’s Superpole.

He was the only rider to go under the two minute barrier. Karl Muggeridge was on course to beat two minutes – and had recorded a sub 2 minute time in free practice (1:59.934) but crashed towards the end of his lap when his front end washed out. He did not appear to be injured. He will start from eighth.

Click here to enter MCN Fantasy Road Race.
Lorenzo Lanzi impressed with a second fastest to make it a Ducati 1-2 while Andrew Pitt claimed third.

Both Bayliss and Lanzi took the unusual step of running race tyres in the one-lap Superpole. Ducati Corse judged that the performance of the Pirelli race tyre on the 999 was better than the qualifying tyre over the entire lap.

“It feels great to be back in Superbikes and it’s always nice to have pole position” said Troy. “I actually expected to do a little better in Superpole but I did enough to get pole and I’m happy with that.

“It feels great to start on the front row alongside Troy” added Lanzi, “I believe that I showed, in qualifying and the Superpole, that I can be up there at the front.”

Britain’s James Toseland moved up the order compared to his qualifying time, to claim the fourth and final place on the front row.

For full list of times, see below.
Click here to enter MCN Fantasy Road Race.

Superpole result: Order dictates starting positions on grid.

Brackets indicates points scored in MCN Fantasy Road Racing for this Superpole result

1. Bayliss: 1.59.969 (5)

2. Lanzi: 2:00.028 (4)

3. Pitt: 2:00.110 (3)

4. Toseland:2:00.112 (2)

5. Corser: 2:00.206 (1)

6. Haga:2:00.613

7. Kagayama:2:00.895

8. Muggeridge: (will start from eighth after crashing)

9. Martin: 2:00.940

10. Barros: 2:00.960

11. Rolfo: 2:01.072

12. Walker: 2:01.137

13. Nieto: 2:01.155

14. Chili: 2:02.038

15. Fabrizio: 2:02.596

16. Borciani: 2:03.150

Friday morning’s Qualifying 2 (time quoted best of Q1 and Q2 sessions)

1. Bayliss – Ducati – 2:00.639

2. Muggeridge – Honda – 2’00.745

3. Pitt – Yamaha – 2’00.818

4. Corser – Suzuki – 2’01.008

5. Haga – Yamaha – 2’01.314

6. Lanzi – Ducati – 2’01.369

7. Kagayama – Suzuki – 2’01.579

8. Martin – Petronas FP1 – 2’01.613

9. Toseland – Honda – 2’01.692

10. Chili – Honda – 2’01.781

11. Nieto – Kawasaki – 2’01.809

12. Barros – Honda – 2’01.953

13. Walker – Kawasaki – 2’01.975

14. Rolfo – Ducati – 2’02.020

15. Fabrizio – Honda – 2’02.437

16. Borciani – Ducati – 2’02.449

The following do not take part in Superpole

17. Laconi 18. Gimbert 19.Abe. 20. Neukirchner 21.Xaus 22.Clementi 23. Pedercini, 24. Nakatomi 25. Foret 26. Iannuzzo 27. Battaini

Not qualified – but still likely to race: Al Naimi, C Jones

In Supersport, Sebastien Charpentier is on pole, from Ten Kate team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu. Kevin Curtain is third quickest. BSB star Dean Thomas is 18th, just behind fellow Australian Anothony Gobert. British rider Tom Tunstall is 23rd on his World Supersport debut.