Régis Laconi will start tomorrow's third round of the World Superbike Championship at Valencia, Spain from the front row of the grid after setting third-quickest time in Superpole. Eleventh overnight, the Frenchman improved his qualifying time by well over one second today and then put in a good performance in the one-lap dash to end up behind poleman Corser (Suzuki) and second-placed Vermeulen (Honda).

"My lap was really not perfect, I can do better but to be third today is good because this track is difficult and the conditions were quite warm out there" declared Laconi. "Yesterday I finished eleventh because we didn't use the qualifying tyres but today the team worked well and we found some good race settings. For sure Troy is very fast not only in Superpole but also with the race tyre but I will try my best to see what I can do. In any case starting on the front row is the best thing here at Valencia."

There was less joy for James Toseland as the reigning champion failed to qualify for Superpole due to a problem when there were just a few minutes remaining of the morning's second and final qualifying hour. As a result the 24-year-old will start from row 6 of the grid in tomorrow's two 23-lap races.

"I didn't make Superpole because I had a problem with the front end of the bike three minutes before the end of the session and after I had changed the tyre I went out again but just missed the flag by a couple of seconds" commented James. "Unfortunately we've been going in the wrong direction during qualifying and when you go in the wrong direction, it all becomes that bit more difficult. We managed to sort out Friday's problems with the front suspension but then I had no grip in the rear so we went back to yesterday's settings and that wasn't much better. I'm on a factory Ducati so I know I shouldn't be in this position. You can't really win races from 23rd on the grid, but I'm sure I can do a good race pace tomorrow so let's see what we can salvage from here".