World Superbike 2005 - Round Four

The fourth round of the World Superbike Championship at Monza produced two great races today in front of 93,000 fans and in particular two important results for the Ducati Xerox Team following a difficult start to the season. After a superb recovery in race 1, James Toseland takes home an excellent third place behind the two Suzukis of Corser and Kagayama, a real confidence boost for the young reigning champion. While in the second race of the day, Régis Laconi led across the startline on every lap until half way through the final lap, when he was passed by Vermeulen (Honda), who went onto take the win.

"In the last few laps I saw on my pit board that someone was behind me but I didn't have time to see who it was, as I was just trying to keep my small advantage" declared Laconi. "Maybe I pushed too much on my tyre to hold off Troy in the early laps because the left side was becoming very difficult and the tyre was sliding around. But I am very happy because I made a good race result and we pushed very hard to be there today. I really wanted to win today but Chris passed me on the last lap. He was just a little bit faster than me for the last few laps but we will see next time! I gave my best and I am happy when I get a result like that".

"I'm slightly disappointed that the second race wasn't as good as the first but we had a bit of a spin problem and I wasn't able to slipstream the Kawasaki and the Yamaha and when I did, after eight laps, the leaders had gone" explained Toseland. "The podium in race 1 was the best bonus for me. It was a race in which I showed everyone, the team and myself that I am capable of repeating my performances of last season. The team has been well-organised all weekend, we found a great set-up at the start and we were able to run two confident races. It's been a positive weekend all round because I was on the podium and I'm taking a trophy home to Silverstone for the British Round".