Toseland Takes Second Place In Superpole - July 16th 2005

James Toseland (Ducati Xerox Team) produced his best qualifying performance of the year at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic as he powered his Ducati 999F05 to second place on the grid. The reigning world champion, sporting a new totally shaved head look, was only ninth after the regular two qualifying sessions but he held on to the top slot with a time of 2m03.180s until the championship leader Troy Corser went quicker towards the end. Team-mate Régis Laconi was not so fortunate, the Frenchman only qualifying ninth in Superpole and he will start from the third row of the grid in tomorrow's two 20-lap races.

"It's my first front row of the year and I'm overjoyed!" declared Toseland. "I 've been close a number of times on the second row but not quite there. Pole position would have been nice but Troy pulled out a fantastic lap. The team's worked really well this weekend, I had a good test one month ago and I knew that we could be competitive. It's going to be a difficult race but I've got a good set-up and I'm confident for tomorrow. This place is really strange, when it's cool in the morning the times are really good and the tyres work well but as soon as the temperature goes up, everyone starts to have problems and not many people went faster in the afternoon. We just worked with that, I've done a lot of laps this weekend to get used to how it's going to be in the races tomorrow and I think we've got as good a package as anyone out there."

"I made some little mistakes on my Superpole lap in a couple of places and lost time there. I thought I could do a 03.4s lap if everything was perfect but I didn't do it and I'm not so happy" declared Laconi. "Row 3 is not such a good start but the race will be different for sure. We need to change one more thing with the gearing to be faster so I will speak with my engineers soon and maybe we will change that for tomorrow. I am sure I can do well in the races, on the race tyre we have to stay constant on around 2m04s for minimum 4 or 5 laps, which is the important thing. I'm quite confident about the bike, but this track is strange because you cannot be sure about the feeling and then you have to make changes. I really have to push immediately at the start to go to the front because if one or two riders get away then it is finished."

Starting Grid:

1. 1. Corser (Suzuki) 2m02.694s
2. 2. Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 2m03.180s
3. 3. Neukirchner (Honda) 2m03.214s
4. 4. Vermeulen (Honda) 2m03.247s
5. 5. Muggeridge (Honda) 2m03.252s
6. 6. Walker (Kawasaki) 2m03.429s
7. 7. Kagayama (Suzuki) 2m03.473s
8. 8. Cardoso (Yamaha) 2m03.492s
9. 9. Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 2m03.756s
10. 10. Checa (Yamaha) 2m03.913s