Ducati And Honda Fight For Provisional Pole

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) mustered a full effort in the later stages of the first hour of timed qualifying at Phillip Island to score provisional pole, displacing new SBK inductee Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda) from his previous lead on the time sheets. A late push from James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) put him third fastest, with reigning World Champion Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) fourth quickest. The top four riders were all within less than half a second, but Bayliss had a useful advantage over the other three, going 0.403 faster than second quickest rider, Barros.

After a tailwind down the main straight helped top speeds in the morning’s unofficial session, the timed hour in the afternoon featured significantly reduced top speed readings, after the winds changed direction by 180°. One more predictable feature of the opening day was high temperature, which finally peaked at 36°C. On tarmac that was over 50°C, and still not quite scrubbed in to optimum condition, riders found their tyres moving around on the long corners, adding another variable to their set-up equations.

Corser’s team-mate Yukio Kagayama was the fifth fastest man on day one, but such was the speed of the front four that he was over a second from provisional pole, and half a second behind fourth. Proving his worth once more, Petronas FP-1 rider Steve Martin took his triple to sixth fastest time, an outstanding achievement on a bike which gives away 100cc on the opposition. Yamaha rider Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) was seventh best rider, ahead of Chris Walker’s PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse machine, despite Walker experiencing severe chatter problems throughout the day.

Despite his broken finger and multiple bruises from a crash in the opening round at Qatar, Pierfrancesco Chili (DFX Honda) heads up the current third row. Just behind is Fonsi Nieto’s PSG-1 Kawasaki, with the Spanish star noting that track conditions were not optimal, and that his machine was at a small top speed disadvantage. The transition from MotoGP to World Superbike has proved a happy one for Italian rider Roberto Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) as he took 11th on the provisional grid, just ahead of plucky privateer Ivan Clementi (Pedercini Ducati). A stunningly competitive midfield battle had riders placed from seventh on the grid to 20th all within half a second of each other.

The top 16 riders after the final qualifying session tomorrow will go forward to the Superpole competition, but today’s top 16 was rounded out by the over-keen Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) as he went 13th after trying too hard to impress early on. A good day for the Pedercini crew saw Max Neukirchner score 14th fastest time, ahead of Yamaha Motor France IPONE rider Sebastien Gimbert and Qatar podium man, Andrew Pitt. The latter struggled with machine set-up, in the morning session and had similar woes in the hotter afternoon outings.

Such is the level of competition in World Superbike now that riders of the calibre of Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France), Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati), Regis Laconi (Kawasaki PSG-1) and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) were outside of provisional Superpole qualification on day one.