Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) was the first rider ever to dip under the 1m25s barrier at Laguna Seca when he set a time of 1’24.833, a new circuit record, in the morning’s final qualifying. His participation in Superpole looked doubtful after he high-sided at Turn 3 with four minutes left of the free practice session, but his lap of 1’25.301 earned him a front row start for tomorrow. “I feel a little beat up but I‘m happy to be on the front row” declared Troy. “We were thinking of sitting it out and we would have ended up eighth on row 2 but we decided to go for it anyway. I’m glad I did because it’s important to be as close as possible to Colin. The good thing is that the bike is really quick around here and I set some quick times on my race tyres this afternoon, which makes me feel confident for tomorrow’s races”.

Bostrom (Ducati L&M) was fourth quickest with a time of 1’25.233 but last year’s double winner pushed his 998 too hard on the warm-up lap and lost the front end. He will now start from row 2. “It sucks crashing when going so slow on my warm-up lap” commented Ben. “I don’t know what happened, I was just going slow down the hill to save my qualifying tyres for the lap. I went through Turn 9 and took my tear-off strip and started to tilt it in for Turn 10 and the bike just went out from under me. I thought I hit dirt or oil but it could have been a tear-off. I was pretty pleased with my long-run because I went fast, the tyre feels pretty good, the set-up is close but we’ve still got a few more things to do tomorrow.”

After qualifying 13th, Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) finally came good in Superpole with a lap time of 1’26.091, which earned him seventh slot on the grid. “This morning was not so good, the set-up of the bike wasn’t perfect but now it’s getting a lot better” declared Ruben. “We found some things that helped me and I was really confident in Superpole. I thought my Superpole lap was not so good but maybe that’s the way to go, over the edge at the Corkscrew. With the race tyre I did some really good times in the long-run, so for the moment it’s OK and I hope tomorrow to do the same”.