Rain slows WSB practice

The first practice for the opening round of the 2005 World Superbike championship got underway at Qatar with just nine riders taking to the rain-drenched track.

It doesn’t rain often in the desert, but when it does it is torrential. Most riders chose to sit out the session and hope that the rain has stopped for the qualifying session later this morning.

Although the rain will wash away the remaining sand left on the track it has also washed off the rubber laid down by the bikes in the official test last weekend so grip on the new track will be significantly reduced.

The Foggy Petronas riders took advantage of the small numbers to get some clear time on track and Garry McCoy came away with the fastest time of the session closely followed by his team mate Steve Martin.

Chris Walker came in third fastest on the DFX Kawasaki ZX-10R followed by current champ James Toseland on the Xerox Ducati 999.

Gianluca Vizziello, Frankie Chili, Max Neukirchner, Lorenzo Lanzi and Ivan Clementi made the total up to nine riders.

Official times:

1 McCoy Garry 2:41.775

2 Martin Steve 2:46.327

3 Walker Chris 2:49.966

4 Toseland James 2:50.901

5 Vizziello Gianluca 2:51.202

6 Chili Pierfrancesco 2:57.564

7 Neukirchner Max 3:00.344

8 Lanzi Lorenzo 3:01.903

9 Clementi Ivan 3:04.140

See our six-page WSB preview in MCN this week (Feb 23) and full report and inside-paddock story of the first race weekend of the season in our March 2 issue.