James Toseland opened the second round of the 2007 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island in spectacular style, recording the fastest lap in the first qualifying session - more than half a second quicker than his nearest competitor.
"It's been a great day, smiled Toseland, I've had in the back of my mind all day that I wanted to be quickest - it's my manager's birthday today and I can't think of a better present for him! It certainly beats shopping for a present.
Toseland knew from the off that he was on for a good day on track as he went on to say, I knew as soon as I went out this morning that the bike was working really well. We had a great setting on the bike during the test in January so I knew we were starting from a good point. To finish 0.6 seconds ahead is a pretty good gap. I don't want to peak too early, but so far so good."
Despite high temperatures and the slippery track surface the British rider defeated Australian
Troy Bayliss on his home turf to secure the best lap of 1min 32.040 secs - 0.4 seconds inside the official race lap record for the 4.445km track.
Toseland's team-mate
Roberto Rolfo started the day well and secured some excellent lap times in free practice during the morning. He showed that he is still improving and looked set to secure a top ten position on the qualifying time sheets. As the temperatures rose in the afternoon, the first half of the session went according to plan, but the final 20 minutes saw Rolfo unable to pass a pack of slower riders. His final time was 1min 33.865secs and that gave him 14th position on the results table.
"I don't feel too bad because this morning's session went very well, I was very quick, said the Italian, For the afternoon it went well for the first half of qualifying as I tried to improve the race set-up of the bike. Unfortunately at the end I was in the wrong place at the wrong time because there some slower riders in front of me. I tried to overtake but it was not easy and I lost my last part of the session. I think tomorrow I get do a lot better."
