Troy Bayliss from Toseland and Haga in Vallelunga

Troy Bayliss continued to set the pace in WSB by topping the time sheets after day one at a scorching Vallelunga test in Italy. The Australian has won the last three races and is on a role determined to keep the maximum amount of pressure on championship leader James Toseland.

Bayliss had the advantage over the majority of his rivals having already tested at the new to WSB Vallelunga circuit in February. At that test his best lap was a 1m38.6 so today’s impressive time of 1m37.2 set with 55 degree track temperature was an indication of how hard the reigning champion is riding.

He said:

“Today we went round and round and we don’t really have really anything new to test. We’re just playing with the setting and each track now it’s so critical to get it spot-on because everybody’s going just so fast. We’ve come up with a reasonably good setting at the moment. We’ve tested a couple of new tyres, which were quite good. I’m sure tomorrow we’re going to do a couple of race simulations. We didn’t look so fast this morning because we were staying with the old tyres, which were a bit harder, but you never know we could have to use them in the race when race time comes. The new tyres were definitely a step better and we went over a second faster than we went in the tests in February and I’m sure tomorrow morning we can go quite a bit quicker if we get some good conditions and it’s a bit cooler because the track was very hot this afternoon.”

 

Second position went to Britons James Toseland who has been quick all day and held the top spot up until five minutes from the end. Toseland has spent the day learning the track and working on the Pectal PI advanced electronics, which are clearly improving the overall Ten Kate Honda package.

Nori Haga slipped to third place having led the way this morning and the majority of this afternoon’s session. The Yamaha man continued to put in laps on old rubber which prevented him going for a time to match Toseland and Bayliss in the dying minutes.

Yukio Kagayama proved that he is getting his season back on track. Having secured solid results in Misano the Japanese star lapped fastest in the Brno test two weeks ago and ended up fourth today.

Troy Corser was another man on the pace to end up fifth whilst local man Max Biaggi had a disappointing day by his standards and ended up sixth at a track he and his fans are desperate for him to do well at.

 

Troy Bayliss            Ducati          1’37.287

James Toseland       Honda           1’37.423

Nori Haga               Yamaha        1’37.535

Yukio Kagayama      Suzuki          1’37.655

Troy Corser            Yamaha        1’37.731

Max Biaggi              Suzuki          1’37.826

Ruben Xaus             Ducati          1’37.867

Regis Laconi           Kawasaki      1’37.994

Roberto Rolfo         Honda          1’38.098

Michel Fabrizio       Honda          1’38.285

Lorenzo Lanzi         Ducati          1’38.470

Fonsi Nieto             Kawasaki      1’38.804