BAYLISS ON POLE AT PHILLIP ISLAND
- 21 May 2013
Australia’sTroy Bayliss captured his first Superpole of the year after crashing his Ducati just three minutes before the end of the second qualifying session. The crash came after he had set the quickest time, leaving the 38 year old with eight stitches in his left elbow.
He then proceeded to smash the circuit record at the end of second free practice. Then in the Superpole session he carved another three-tenths of a second off that time to take the pole from his fellow Aussie Troy Corser on his Yamaha with a time of 1 minute 31.493 seconds. Young Italian Michel Fabrizio was next up on his Ducati, edging out Carlos Checa’s Honda for the final front row slot.“It has been a bit eventful but I’m sitting here on pole and that makes me feel good about tomorrow’s race” declared Bayliss. “Deep down I knew Troy was the man who I was going to have to beat. We always end up fast here and it was pretty close and I’m sure it’s going to be a good race tomorrow. I did a long-run yesterday and planned to do another one today but the crash put paid to that. I did quite a few laps and I’m reasonably happy with the tyres and I feel sure the first few laps will be decisive up to about lap 8 and then it’s definitely going to get slower and a lot harder for the rest of the race”.Corser said: “It’s always great to race here at PhillipIsland and see all the friends and family. Today the bike was working well, but we had a few problems in that last free practice trying to get the bike balanced. Unfortunately we were unable to use the qualifying tyre before Superpole so basically I was doing it for the first time on the qualifying tyre. We can’t complain too much however and well done to Troy”.Fabrizio commented: “It’s been a great weekend so far and hopefully I can continue. Let’s see if I can stay with these two ‘old’ guys tomorrow! It’s going to be a really tough race, I feel sure and for me to finish behind them will be a great satisfaction”.Carlos Checa declared: “I wasn’t sure with the qualifying tyre, which I’ve only used a couple of times but all the team pushed me to use them whereas I wanted to use the race tyre. We are trying to understand better the bike, which is still young, but the feeling for the tyres is already good. This combination is working much better now and we are at a good level quickly”.Qatar winner Fonsi Nieto was fifth for Alstare Suzuki, followed by the rapidly improving Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Ducati), Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha WSB) and Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki). Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati) had to abandon his Superpole run before entering the shoot-out lap after his gear lever snapped and the Italian will start from row 4 of the grid. TIMES: World Superbike Superpole
1.Bayliss (Ducati) 1’31.493
2. Corser (Yamaha) 1’32.011
3. Fabrizio (Ducati) 1’32.164
4. Checa (Honda) 1’32.373
5. Nieto (Suzuki) 1’32.711
6. Smrz (Ducati) 1’32”714
7. Haga (Yamaha) 1’32.728
8. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1’32.767
9. Holland (Honda) 1’32.903
10. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1’32”962
11. Xaus (Ducati) 1’32.983
12. Muggeridge (Honda) 1’33.028
13. Rolfo (Honda) 1’33.104
14. Lavilla (Honda) 1’34.060
15. Checa D. (Yamaha) 1’34.166
16. Biaggi (Ducati) 1’32.565
17.Lanzi (Ducati) 1’33.416 18.Tamada (Kawasaki) 1’33.460 19. Kiyonari (Honda) 1’33.522 20. Gimbert (Yamaha) 1’33.715 21.Sofuoglu (Honda) 1’33.728 22. Nakatomi (Yamaha) 1’33.833 23.Iannuzzo (Kawasaki) 1’34.088 24. Aoyama (Honda) 1’34.220 25. Baldovini (Kawasaki) 1’34.291 26. Morelli (Honda) 1’34.345 27. Napoleone (Yamaha) 1’38.220