World Superbike / Supersport 2005 - Round Seven

The Ducati Xerox Team pairing of James Toseland and Régis Laconi had mixed fortunes in the Czech Round of the World Superbike Championship at Brno, where the two wins went to Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha).

In race 1 both riders rode storming races to put their Ducati 999F05 machines on the podium, Toseland finishing in second place ahead of Laconi after a terrific scrap with Walker (Kawasaki). "It was a hard race, I had a problem with the clutch at the start and that spoiled my whole race, but when I was catching everyone I could see that their tyres were going off, so I had to catch them before mine did as well and so I rode really aggressively. I enjoyed the race but I'm a bit disappointed Troy won again because we just can't afford to finish second."

"I am so happy to be on the podium because being ninth in Superpole was not so good" declared Laconi. "I pushed very hard, I chose the softer tyre at the front and the last few laps were very difficult. I tried to follow James but he was faster than me at the finish and so I settled for third, but I am happy because I took some points from Vermeulen and that's what I need for today."

Laconi and Toseland could only manage seventh and eighth in the second appointment of the day after fading away from the leaders due to tyre problems. This race, rerun over the full 20 laps and not on aggregate, had to be restarted after a delay of 45 minutes to clean up oil on the track following an incident but in the two laps before the red flags came out, Laconi had made a blistering start to head the field and was leading from Corser and Toseland before the interruption. Toseland continued: "In the first start the tyres were unbelievably good and after all the effort we'd made I would have won that race for sure, but there's nothing good I can say about the second race. After lap 3, the tyres were just not performing as well and there was nothing I could do. It's a pity because with Corser's results today it looks as if we're not going to be able to win this championship now."

Laconi added: "I struggled a bit with the gearing over the weekend, that was my fault but we made a change and it was a lot better. After two laps I found myself in the lead and that was fantastic but on the restart after half distance the front started to slide a lot. I was trying my best just to stay on the bike, because it was so hard. I finished seventh, which means I'm disappointed for myself and Ducati because they've done a good job. Now I'm already thinking about the next race, I will take my fight to Brands and do much better. The only positive thing from this weekend is that I gained one point on Vermeulen!"