Late Run Suits Laconi: Xerox Ducati rider Regis Laconi, the 2004 season runner up, fired an early first shot in the 2005 campaign by taking the Superpole win at Losail International Circuit. In changing conditions, the Superpole contest was run under ‘Wet’ regulations thanks to a ruling by Race Direction, even with a largely dry track surface underfoot at the start. The decision was vindicated by a fall of rain with 20 minutes of the 50-minute session remaining, and thus each rider was given a limited number of laps in which to complete their personal best. As the racing line dried out Laconi and co took to the track one more, hoping to improve on their early session times, with Laconi making the best of it and taking his seventh career pole position, with a 2:01.593.

Front Row Squatters: Troy Corser (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki) was the man Laconi displaced to take Superpole, and sportingly he was also the rider who got out of Laconi’s path during the Frenchman’s fast run to the Superpole win. He was second by a margin of 0.048 seconds, with the front row completed by Yamaha Motor France IPONE runner Sebastien Gimbert, and another full-time SBK rookie, Yukio Kagayama, Corser’s partner in the Suzuki squad.

Pitt Fifth, Cardoso Recovers to Sixth: Andrew Pitt, who had a troubled final qualifying session after a machine problem, secured the best spot on row two, riding his Yamaha Motor Italia R1 to within almost a second of Laconi’s best on a changing circuit. Two Yamaha riders followed him on the final grid placing, with Jose Luis Cardoso (DFX Extreme Sterilgarda Yamaha) one of the riders temporarily demoted below his previous qualifying position, simply by not putting in a fast lap before the rains came. On a drying track, he took sixth place, one up on the second Yamaha Motor Italia rider, Noriyuki Haga.

Vermeulen Reasserts Class: Despite a crash in the final Superpole minutes, Chris Vermeulen recovered both composure and lap time enough to earn a second row start, with eighth best time on his Winston Ten Kate Honda. Ivan Silva again used his last exit of pitlane to secure ninth place on his La Glisse Yamaha, ahead of SBK legend and new Klaffi Honda runner, Pierfrancesco Chili.

Walker Battles On: Top Kawasaki runner was, as has been the case for most of qualifying, Chris Walker, who had to sit out the final possible lap after a minor machine niggle prevented him from setting a fast final lap. He was nonetheless one place up on Kawasaki Bertocchi runner Giovanni Bussei.

Champion on Row Four: 2004 World Champion James Toseland, continually exiting and entering the pit in qualifying today, slipped down the order to finish Superpole only 13th, sharing the final four places of a wet Superpole with Klaffi Honda runner Max Neukirchner, Norick Abe (Yamaha
Motor France) and Marco Borciani (DFX Extreme Sterilgarda Yamaha).

Outside Bets: Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati SC Caracchi) and Karl Muggeridge (Winston ten Kate Honda) were two of the series’ bigger names who did not make the Superpole cut after the final regulation qualifying session proved to be wet, and necessarily slow laps left them stranded just outside the top 16, unable to improve on their first day times or positions. Fonsi Nieto (Ducati SC Caracchi) stayed 19th fastest thanks to his day one time, and for the same reason Steve Martin (Petronas FP-1) was 20th, and fills the last space on row five. Local rider Talal Al Nuami (La Glisse Yamaha) failed to make the qualifying time but was allowed to race.