Vallelunga World Superbikes: Troy Bayliss on top, James Toseland bounces back

Ducati’s Troy Bayliss shrugged off a slow speed crash to set the fastest lap time during this morning hour long second qualifying session.

Troy Bayliss crashed out at the first gear hairpin after grounding out his left hand paddock stand lug on his Xerox Ducati and low siding across the track.

The reigning world champion was unhurt and after walking back to the pits went back out on his second bike and set pole with less than a minute of the session to go.

Troy Bayliss was backed up by fellow Ducati man Ruben Xaus who took second spot exactly 0.1sec  behind. Xaus has good form at the Vallelunga track having topped the time sheets in July’s official test onboard his 2006 specification Sterilgarda Ducati 999.

Troy Corser was once again fast but was unable to match his dominance of yesterday and slipped to third onboard his Yamaha Italia R1.

James Toseland and his Ten Kate Honda team clearly made some big overnight improvements to allow Toseland to set the fourth fastest time and even more significantly lap 0.8sec quicker than yesterday to close to within 0.3sec of pole.

DFX Honda rider Michel Fabrizio was another man on a mission to impress in front of his home fans and claimed fifth place after being as high as second earlier in the session.

Max Biaggi improved on time but couldn’t replicate his fourth place qualifying position of yesterday and dropped to sixth ahead of a rejuvenated Lorenzo Lanzi in seventh.

Noriyuki Haga endured a difficult session and spent the morning working on the set-up of his Yamaha Italia R1.

Haga is losing time through the first fast split, but is still placed on the provisional second row and will be looking to improve in this afternoons Superpole shootout.

Qualifying practice two results:

1 BAYLISS T. AUS Ducati 999 F07 1’37.017
2 XAUS R. ESP Ducati 999 F06 1’37.117
3 CORSER T. AUS Yamaha YZF-R1 1’37.190
4 TOSELAND J. GBR Honda CBR1000RR 1’37.371
5 FABRIZIO M. ITA Honda CBR1000RR 1’37.468
6 BIAGGI M. ITA Suzuki GSX-R1000 K7 1’37.642
7 LANZI L. ITA Ducati 999 F07 1’37.785
8 HAGA N. JPN Yamaha YZF-R1 1’37.825
9 ROLFO R. ITA Honda CBR1000RR 1’38.048
10 LACONI R. FRA Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’38.052
11 NEUKIRCHNER M. GER Suzuki GSX-R1000 K6 1’38.168
12 NIETO F. ESP Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’38.498
13 NAKATOMI S. JPN Yamaha YZF-R1 1’38.652
14 SMRZ J. CZE Ducati 999 F05 1’38.623
15 IANNUZZO V. ITA Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’38.623
16 BORCIANI M. ITA Ducati 999 F06 1’38.673
17 MUGGERIDGE K. AUS Honda CBR1000RR 1’38.695
18 TIBERIO Y. FRA Honda CBR1000RR 1’38.784
19 BRIGNOLA N. ITA Ducati 999 F05 1’39.085
20 KAGAYAMA Y. JPN Suzuki GSX-R1000 K7 1’40.476
21 MORELLI L. ITA Honda CBR1000RR 1’39.799
22 MARTIN S. AUS Suzuki GSX-R1000 K6 1’40.251
23 ELLISON D. GBR Ducati 999RS 1’41.966