Régis Laconi returns to his place alongside
James Toseland in the Xerox Ducati squad after recovering from the arm injury he suffered at Assen and the Italian hopes he can do well this weekend.
Three weeks ago Laconi was replaced for the German round by
Lorenzo Lanzi, who went on to take pole and score a sensational victory at the Eurospeedway. Lanzi now returns to his usual team, Stefano Caracchi's SC Ducati, but for the final two rounds of this year's championship the 23-year-old Italian will have at his disposal a full-factory 999F05, which he will race in SC colours with additional Xerox logos on the side and front fairings.
Last year's Imola double race winner Règis Laconi has spent the month since Assen in a race against time to get fit for the final back-to-back championship events at Imola and Magny-Cours.
"Now my arm is starting to get better" commented the 30-year-old Frenchman. "It's still not at 100% and probably won't be for the race but we knew that it would be like that. The important thing is to try and get the arm to work calmly and find the right feeling with the bike this weekend, despite the fact that there will still be a bit of pain.
"This last month I've worked hard with the physiotherapist to get into the best possible condition. At least I'm going back to a track that I know well and where I won last year and in 2001 because that makes things a bit easier. It might be possible for me to get third in the championship but it's not going to be easy because Haga is 25 points ahead with four races left. But I love the Imola track and we'll do our best to get some good results there".
