Octagon

The sheer exuberance and riding talent of Ruben Xaus delivered the Spaniard a perfect opportunity to take his first ever Superpole win and when his only remaining rival James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati 998 F02) failed to beat Xaus’ time of 1:48.636, he added his name to an illustrious list of pole winners. Xaus’ time was the best of the weekend, and the first inside the 1:48 mark.

The start of the Superpole competition was a dramatic affair, with Sergio Fuertes (MIR Suzuki GSX-R) almost crashing at the exit of last corner on his approach to the start finish line. Staying aboard he completed his lap but was slowest of all 16 fastest riders from regulation qualifying.

With the riders starting in reverse order of their qualifying times, provisional pole man Toseland brought the competition to a close, with the current top four men in the overall championship standings eventually taking a spot somewhere on the front row for Sunday’s pair of 21-lap Superbike races.

Leader Xaus is followed by second fastest man Regis Laconi (NCR Caracchi Ducati). Xaus and Laconi are the only two current SBK combatants to have won a race at Imola, an ominous portent for their rivals ranged out behind.

In third spot the new World Champion Neil Hodgson (Fila Ducati) had to make do with ‘merely’ a front row start, with Toseland fourth.
Local hot-shot Pierfrancesco Chili was good value for his fifth place on a two-year-old but rapid PSG-1 Ducati.

The sixth place performance of the undisputed King of Superpole, Troy Corser, was further proof of the increasing prowess of the Foggy Petronas triple. The 900cc machine gives away 100cc to all its rivals but recent work on the engine and electronic management system has released more of the machine’s potential for advancement.

Top pure privateer Steve Martin attacked the curves and bumps of Imola on his DFX Ducati machine, and will start the race from seventh place, in a strong second row position. Joining Martin on the second row is the second top Spanish rider in Superpole, Juan Borja, Martin’s team-mate. Top four-cylinder runner proved to be Gregorio Lavilla (Alstare Suzuki) taking ninth fastest time, ahead of an aggressive but ultimately disappointed HM Plant Ducati rider Chris Walker, who scored tenth on his year-old factory machine.

Ivan Clementi scored an early success, setting the best time for a long period and ending his day 11th on the 750cc ex-factory Kawasaki ZX-7RR, ahead of the privateer Ducati Pedercini 998RS of Lucio Pedercini.

The three rider DFX Ducati effort was completed in Superpole by Marco Borciani, who went 13th fastest, outpacing Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki Bertocchi ZX-7RR). DFX Ducati rider Sergio Garcia scored 15th, ahead of the near-crasher Fuertes.

Troy Corser

Troy had a really good final qualifying and Superpole and finished sixth quickest at Imola today, with a time of 1:49.880. But, in addition to the time, Troy was also happy because he was able to enjoy himself on the bike and just go out and ride hard. The team have worked hard on the engine and now the bike is pulling more strongly out of the turns and also through the uphill section here at Imola. Now Troy is hoping that his Petronas FP1 will be equally strong in tomorrow's pair of 21-lappers and that he can have his best weekend of the year. Spaniard Ruben Xaus (Ducati) took top spot on the grid with his strongest Superpole performance of the year, with Regis Laconi (Ducati) second. Third is newly crowned Champion Neil Hodgson, ahead of James Toseland and Frankie Chili - all Ducati-mounted.

Troy Corser - "Sixth was better then I expected at the start of the day and I'm happy. The team had done a lot of work on the engine recently and today it paid off. The bike pulled more strongly then it has done all year and it was fun to ride it! We altered the cam timing to get more torque and better acceleration and that also helped. I sort of ran out of qualifying tyres, otherwise I might have got a 1:49.5, but it doesn't matter because I still would've been on the second row. The chassis was working well today and I've been able to keep with some of the top guys because I'm getting on the gas pretty early. There's s bit of problem at low rpm, but we working on that and hopefully we can improve it. I think we've found a pretty good set-up for the race and the bike is riding the bumpy sections pretty well - and there are a lot of bumps here - so I think that I may be able to have a bit of fun tomorrow."

HM Plant Ducati

Today’s penultimate Superbike World Championship Superpole qualifying session took place at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit at Imola this afternoon. In near perfect conditions, HM Plant Ducati riders James Toseland and Chris Walker qualified in fourth and tenth respectively at the 4.93km Italian circuit.

Twenty-two-year-old Toseland has been the fastest rider throughout practice and official qualifying, posting a best lap of 1:49.011 yesterday afternoon. The final rider to go out during Superpole, a slight mistake on the final corner of his warm-up lap put too much pressure on the Yorkshire rider to match factory rider Ruben Xaus’s excellent lap time of 1:48.636 but Toseland’s time of 1:49.228 still put him on the front row for tomorrow’s race.

“It would have been nice to have been fastest but the most important thing is to be on the front row,” said Toseland. “I made a slight mistake coming on to the start finish straight but I’m not too concerned because I’ve been putting in the fast times since arriving here and have got a great set-up for tomorrow’s races, so as long as I get a good start I should be in with a shout of a decent result.”

Toseland’s team mate, Chris Walker has worked hard throughout qualifying and was fourth quickest after both official qualifying sessions, even though it is only his second visit to this circuit. Currently sixth in the championship, the Nottingham rider made a mistake during the mid-section of his Superpole lap and his time of 1:50.413 puts him tenth on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

“Superpole is all about taking chances and not making mistakes and unfortunately for me, I made a small mistake and paid the price. Having been one of the fastest riders so far this weekend it is disappointing to be on the third row, so I’ll be doing my best to make one of my demon starts tomorrow. If I can be up with the leading riders by the first corner I know I can run at the front.”

Suzuki

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Gregorio Lavilla posted the ninth quickest time in Superpole today after experiencing a tough time in today's qualifying and Superpole. At the start of the season, Gregorio and the team realised that some tracks would provide them with problems and Imola was one of them. And that's how it has been so far. Gregorio and the team have found it hard here getting the GSXR1000's power down on to the tarmac and so haven't been able to lap as quickly or as efficiently as they would've liked. At the faster circuits, such as Assen or Monza for example, Gregorio has been able to use the substantial power of the bike, but at tight and twisty tracks (or tracks with many slow corners) like Oschersleben, Misano or here at Imola, it has been a bit of a problem - and one that remains to be satisfactorily solved. Ruben Xaus set today's quickest time - with a lap of 1:48.636 - the first ever "Superpole" for Gregorio's fellow countryman.
Second is Regis Laconi, ahead of Neil Hodgson, James Toseland and Frankie Chili - all Ducati mounted.

GREGORIO LAVILLA - 9th, 1:50.318: We knew we were in for a bit of struggle here and that's how it's been. My Alstare Suzuki has enough power, but we cannot transfer all the power to the ground and that's hurting us. I just cannot open the throttle as quickly as I'd like out of the slow corners and so I'm losing ground. If there were only two or three corners that gave me trouble, we would be able to compensate, but Imola is more then that. I have worked very hard all season and I'm still working hard now. I believe that I'm doing the best I can with the bike I have and I'll be doing my utmost to get a pair of good results tomorrow. Just because we have some problems, it doesn't mean I'm not going to give it everything I can. I will fight all the way to the chequered flag whatever happens."

Ducati Fila

Today saw an intense day of activity at the Autodromo Enzo & Dino Ferrari Circuit in Imola, the scene for the penultimate round of the World Superbike Championship. Ruben Xaus (Ducati Fila) clinched the battle for Superpole with a spectacular lap of 1'48.636 and will start from pole for the first time ever in three years of WSBK racing. Newly-crowned champion Neil Hodgson lines up in third, eight-thousandths of a second slower than Regis Laconi (NCR Ducati) and fellow Brit James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati), who completes the front row.

"It's important to work well all weekend and I succeeded in getting a great set-up with my race tyre, so I'm really happy" declared Ruben. "In my head I have all the information I need for a good race; the braking points, changes in direction, passing places and in addition my 999 is perfect. It's not true that I really like this track but probably my riding style suits it a lot because you are really loose over all the bumps. Tomorrow I want to win both races because Neil beat me at Assen, but above all I want to win for Ducati".

"The Imola circuit is really tough, and at almost two minutes it's quite a long lap so it's easy to rush into a corner, hit the bumps a bit wrong and miss the apex. This place can really bite you" declared Neil. "You know you're not going to get the perfect setting round here, you've just got to go out and ride round the problems. My Superpole performance was really average, I was mainly concentrating on getting the right race set-up in the qualifying sessions, but there's always tomorrow and I'm going to attack in both races. I'm really motivated and want to come away with a couple more wins on Sunday".

An extraordinary welcome from the thousands of fans in the SBK Ring in the Imola paddock was given to Claudio Domenicali, managing director of Ducati Corse. Domenicali, who received the constructors' trophy, the twelfth won by the Bologna manufacturer in 16 years of World Superbike, from Paolo Flammini of championship organisers FGSport, declared: "Today Ducati is a reality throughout the world thanks to Superbike because Superbike has given a lot to the company. Ducati has believed in this championship right from the start, and it has become our 'warhorse' from 1988/89 and the first world title won in 1990 onwards. The World Superbike championship is important because it allows us to experiment with a massive amount of technical solutions which we then apply to our road-going motorcycle range. This year has been fundamental for us both thanks to the victories of Neil and Ruben and to the success of the 999 Factory bike".

Foggy Petronas

Troy Corser equalled his second best grid position of Foggy Petronas Racing’s debut season by qualifying in sixth place for tomorrow’s two World Superbike races at Imola, Italy.

The Australian had finished seventh fastest as the highest-placed non-Ducati rider in the final morning qualifying session. But he went one better in the one-lap Superpole shoot-out for grid positions in setting his best lap time of the weekend, with 1:49.880.

Troy, who qualified on the front row at the first round in Valencia and was sixth in the following round in Australia, was pleasantly surprised with the performance of the FP1, the Malaysian superbike, at the testing and bumpy Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit. He said: “Sixth is better than I expected as I thought the bike would struggle through the uphill sections, but the engine is pulling fairly well. We altered the cam timing overnight to produce a bit more torque and acceleration. We have also been playing with the rear shock and have a pretty good set-up, especially over the bumpy sections. Unfortunately we were unable to try another qualifying tyre before Superpole because of the restrictions on the number of rears. So that lap was my first lap on a new tyre and every time I came out of the corner I felt that I might have been able to turn the throttle harder. I could perhaps have done a 49.5 but we would still have been on the second row. I want to work a bit more on the throttle connection off the bottom, which would help in the three chicanes.”

Team-mate James Haydon, missed out on Superpole by two places, despite improving his best first day time by nearly a second in morning qualifying. A stop-start afternoon session, hampered by mechanical problems, prevented further progress. He said: “It’s frustrating not to be using engines with the cylinder head modifications. I wanted to try Troy’s set-up this afternoon but did not really get a chance. Troy’s doing a fantastic job but I still can’t slide the bike or push the front like I want to and I’m disappointed I haven’t been able to made progress.”