Bayliss fast at Valencia test

Bayliss leads Valencia tests

(Ducati Release) BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX) HEADS DAY 1 OF OFFICIAL SUPERBIKE TEST IN VALENCIA

Valencia (Spain), 18th March : Troy Bayliss was the front-runner for the factory Ducati Xerox Team in the first of two days testing for the World Superbike Championship regulars, excluding Honda Ten Kate, at Valencia. In glorious sunshine, the Australian rider was fastest throughout the day, recording his best lap of 1m34.482s in the cooler morning session. Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was second-quickest in the morning, but had a crash in the afternoon and dropped a place as Troy Corser (Yamaha) moved up to split the two Ducatis.

"I did a lot of laps today in the two sessions" declared Troy, "and this morning we did really good on the race tyre and I was quite happy. This afternoon it was quite windy and the track wasn't in such a good condition but we did a long-run anyway. The performance was better than the race last year but we weren't completely happy with it. We'll test a couple more tires tomorrow to get a better idea, play with the setting a bit but overall the bike is working well. I did a 33m7s here last year and maybe I can go better than that tomorrow morning. We'll have to wait and see but for the moment everything's going well and it's a nice little freshen-up for Donington."

"I set the third quickest time of the day, and the fourth in the afternoon" commented Lorenzo. "It's not bad but to be honest I expected a bit more seeing as I had been really quick here in November. I'm still some way off those times I set then but today we tried a lot of different solutions. I had a crash at the hairpin turn 2, but it had no serious consequences. In the afternoon there was a lot of wind and we only began to lap well again towards the end of the session. Valencia is always the same, early in the afternoon the track is always a disaster!"

DAY 1 TIMES : 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.482s; 2. Corser (Yamaha) 1m34.895s; 3. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m35.128s; 4. Biaggi (Suzuki) 1m35.203s; 5. Haga (Yamaha) 1m35.593s; 6. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m35.607s; 7. Xaus (Ducati) 1m35.627s; 8. Polita (Suzuki) 1m35.769s; 9. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m35.785s; 10. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m35.785s.