World Superbike 2006 - Round Two

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) made it seven wins on the run in the European Round of the World Superbike Championship at Silverstone with his third successive double victory this season. With his closest rival Troy Corser (Suzuki) picking up a DNF and a sixth place, the 37 year-old Australian now has a lead of 76 points in the championship with seven rounds still remaining. Japan's Noriyuki Haga and Britain's James Toseland both offered stiff opposition to today and the Yamaha and the Honda rider twice finished behind the Australian to make up identical podiums.

"In 2002 I was lucky enough to win six in a row and I was thinking about that before this weekend but on Friday and Saturday I was throwing myself down the road getting sorer and sorer and I thought it was maybe a good time just to get some points, but racing changes your view of things," commented Troy. "I saw Corser crash in the first race and so I decided to make the most of the situation and not give in to Nori today. I really fought hard for the wins and that makes a good difference in the points for me against Corser. After the first race we tried a softer tyre and changed the suspension a bit, my main man Ernesto Marinelli did a great job and I could ride the bike half-a-second faster in the race. I feel sure that if we had gone with the same tyre it would have been much harder so a big thanks to him and all the guys in the team. Now we go on to Misano, where my 999's gone pretty well in testing, so I'm confident for that race as well."

Lorenzo Lanzi had a difficult weekend from Friday onwards and the young Italian was unable to do better than a thirteenth and a sixteenth place in the two races.

"For race 2 we fitted a slightly softer rear tyre like Troy but I didn't like it very much and I went slower than in race 1," declared Lorenzo. "However unfortunately everything about my race performance was due to the start and the bumping and barging at the first corner. I even passed the line on lap 1 next to last. You can't pretend to win races that way. In the first race I was lucky because I managed to stay upright after the incident at the first corner. At Misano Adriatico for sure we will work hard to start further up the grid because if you want to get good results you have to start up at the front. The most important thing is to try and get the first two rows in Superpole, which at least gives you the chance of getting good results."