Source: Ducati Corse.

Australian legend Troy Bayliss will start from 13th on Sunday in the 2015 Superbike World Championship opener for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team.

The 45-year-old, who retired as world champion in 2008, crashed heavily in free practice on Saturday but quickly bounced back to secure his position on the grid.

Bayliss took part in the first of the two Superpole sessions. He completed an initial lap on race rubber, thanks to which he was lying sixth with a time of 1m33.268s.

Back on track with the qualifying solution, the only qualifier available to him in this first session, the Australian rider put in a time of 1m32.201s, which allowed him to close the session in fourth place.

A later disqualification for Leandro Mercado however ensured Bayliss of 13th position on the grid for tomorrow’s two 22-lap races.

“Today was certainly an improvement over yesterday,” Bayliss said. “I’ve had time to get some good laps in and have felt a lot better on the bike. I did have a crash in the free practice, it was a big highside but I landed okay and was fortunately unhurt.

“I was a little disappointed to not have the chance to participate in the shootout but I’m still happy because I haven’t used the qualifying tyre for such a long time and you need time to build confidence with those tyres.

“I’m confident that we’ll be able to make further improvement tomorrow. The high temperatures forecast for tomorrow will definitely be a factor, but it’s the same for everyone so we’ll just have to see what we can do.”

Still, after six years away from World Superbike competition, Bayliss’ improvement has been outstanding at Phillip Island, with his best time improving by nearly two seconds from opening practice on Friday.

He has now logged less than 50 laps at Phillip Island this weekend – the sum total of his ‘pre-season’ – while his opponents have accumulated hundreds of laps at race tracks around Europe and at Phillip Island earlier this week.