World SuperBike 2002 - Round 3 - Kyalami - Qualifying 1

Championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) headed the timesheets at Kyalami, South Africa as Friday qualifying turned into a terrific three-way battle between the Australian, Honda’s Colin Edwards and Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M). The three riders were separated by a fraction as Bostrom’s one-year-old lap record tumbled by a full second. Ducati Infostrada’s Ruben Xaus was half-a-second off the pace in fourth, ahead of HM Plant Ducati’s Neil Hodgson and Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia).

Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) set a time of 1’41.961 on a qualifying tyre at the end of the hour, smashing the lap record of 1’42.92, but the Australian was convinced there was more to come in tomorrow’s session. “I got a good start to the weekend today in qualifying”, declared Bayliss, “but I’m still not 100% happy as we went a full second quicker than this in January testing. We made a couple of changes on the bike after the morning session and we found some good tyres, with this circuit it’s really just a case of working your way into it. We haven’t changed much on the bike since the last test here, but you just can’t relax with the other guys breathing down your neck. I’m fastest for the moment, but there’s a long way to go”.

Bostrom (Ducati L&M) was separated from Bayliss by 30/100ths of a second, sandwiching Honda’s Colin Edwards, but was pleased with his provisional third-quickest time of 1’41.996. “The bike was great and the tyres were working really well, maybe I could have rode a bit better, but I feel like I’m back in the race”, declared Bostrom. “On my fast lap time of 1’41.9, I made a few mistakes so tomorrow I reckon I can get down to a time of 1’41.0. The only problem is that I’m sure there are a few other riders who are going to do it as well. It’s going to be a great battle tomorrow!”.

Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) was fourth-quickest in today’s first qualifying session after changing to his second 998 due to a minor technical problem. “I feel a lot more happy than I was at the start of qualifying because I was just unable to put together a good lap”, commented Xaus. “Kyalami is a difficult track and you have to stay on the line all the time. I set a good time on my race tyre, but then my number 1 bike developed a temperature problem and I switched to the other one which wasn’t set up exactly the same. I was going better on my second run, but I lost time in the last section which is very hard on the brakes, so I need to work more on the final couple of corners”.

Bayliss - 1m41.961
Edwards - 1m41.973
Bostrom - 1m41.996
Xaus - 1m42.505
Hodgson - 1m42.687
Haga - 1m42.830
Chili - 1m42.929
Pedercini - 1m43.304
Borja - 1m43.336
Toseland - 1m43.449
Izutsu - 1m43.525
Martin - 1m44.023
Borciani - 1m44.061
Foti - 1m44.205
Walker - 1m44.350
Parkes - 1m44.486
Lavilla - 1m44.508
Sanchini - 1m44.872
Antonello - 1m45.018
Stey - 1m46.060
Heckles - 1m46.459
Mrkyvka - 1m47.687
Clementi - 1m49.170
Gyger - 1m53.077

WSBK Friday Qualifying 1 - Honda Report - Aprilia Report - Ducati Report - NCR Report - GSE Report