25 February 2006, Doha, (Qatar) - The WSBK Championship is back, and in unbelievable style. Poor weather affected the weekend at some points, but the Doha races will go down in the history books.
Troy Bayliss, back in SBK with Ducati after wining the 2001 World Championship was constantly the fastest in practice and also the Superpole winner. Behind him, his team mate Lanzi (with the other Ducati 999F06 of the Xerox team) made the same tire choice. The impressive quality of the new Pirelli Diablo Superbike tire told them to go for race specification rubber, instead of a qualifying tire. It proved to be a good choice, with Bayliss able to score a 1'59.696 vs the 2'01.593 set by Ducati pilot Laconi last season.
Pitt (Yamaha) and Toseland (Honda) completed the first row, each with qualifying tires on the rims.

Race 1

AIR HUMIDITY	50%	AIR TEMPERATURE	23°C
TRACK CONDITION	Dry	TRACK TEMPERATURE	39°

At the first time of asking the fastest start went to the R1s of Yamaha Motor Italia team, as Yamaha pilots batted for the first two places. Immediately another fight began with Suzuki, Honda and Ducati attacking in force.
With only 1 lap to go Haga's front-end slide took out the other Japanese Kagayama , leaving the way to the podium to Toseland, Bayliss e Pitt (respectively first, second and third). "Only" fourth came World Champion Troy C with his Suzuki. Reading the time sheets the first data of significance is the total race time: 40 seconds faster than last season. Even more important was the performance of the new Diablo Superbike on the stopwatch: better lap times lap after lap. After the rain and the wind that made the track dirty, concern for the riders would have been understandable, but any concern was unfounded. Thus Troy Bayliss scored his best lap on the second last tour. He lauded the Pirellis in the post race press conference, for their great performance on raceday.

Race Standings

	Rider	Bike	Team	Race time
1	Toseland	Honda CBR1000RR	Winston Ten Kate Honda	36'31.339
2	Bayliss	Ducati 999 F06	Ducati Xerox	+0.088
3	Pitt	Yamaha YZF R1	Yamaha Motor Italia WSB	+2.390

Race 2

AIR HUMIDITY	48%	AIR TEMPERATURE	30?C
TRACK CONDITION	Dry	TRACK TEMPERATURE	46°

Race 2 was almost as exciting. 18 laps at an incredible rhythm, fought like it was a title decider, making for a great show.
During the practice sessions riders didn't have the time to do real race simulations, thus the real test was Race 1. Due the perfect behavior of the tyres for the whole race they decided to push harder from the first lap to the very last lap of race two.
And thus it was 36'20"395 of pure fun. Times were again improved: Noriyuki Haga scored a 2'00.061, a pace which finally deleted the fastest lap from 2005, that of Gimbert, (2'01.852). The top riders could hold 2'00-2'01 pace for the whole race. Final Result, race two was 11" faster than Race 1.
To inflame the public the great battle between the two Troys , was a masterpiece of bravery and riding, and the third position went to a photo finish, taken by Haga over Toseland, by butterfly wing: 0.2 thousandths of a second .
The World Champion again celebrated on the highest step of the podium, but the next race, in Australia, will be a great challenge again.

Race Standings

	Rider	Bike	Team	Race time
1	Corser	Suzuki GXR	Alstare Suzuki	36'20.395
2	Bayliss	Ducati 999 F06	Ducati Xerox	+1.025
3	Haga	Yamaha YZF R1	Yamaha Motor Italia WSB	+3.462

There were 4 different manufacturers in the top 4 positions: Suzuki, Ducati, Yamaha, and Honda. Once more Pirelli;s monotyre solutions, developed alongside all the main participating manufacturers, have delivered positive results and offer top class performance to all.