Bayliss 'pretty chuffed' after strong showing.

In an encouraging development for Ducati and their GP4, Troy Bayliss was in the hunt for a provisional front row for half of this afternoon's opening qualifier at Catalunya.

And although the Aussie eventually slipped to 10th, he reckoned he could have been further up the order if he hadn't got out of shape during his best qualifying lap -leaving him 'pretty chuffed'.

"I feel more comfortable on the bike here," said Troy. "We're doing the same kind of work on set-up, but maybe a bit less than at recent races. I think the fact that I'm so used to riding the bike - I've hardly been off the thing in the last week - is also helping.

"I feel good here and the bike is working good. For a Friday I'm feeling pretty chuffed, especially since I got a bit of the hippy, hippy shakes just before the last fast rights that maybe cost me half a second on my best lap," he added.

Team-mate Loris Capirossi was also a factor this afternoon, rising to sixth during the closing stages of the session but, like Bayliss, would later slip down the order (to eleventh).

"Overall, I feel that we are in better shape than we were at Mugello, though I feel I have to improve something in myself here," admitted the Italian. "As far as the bike goes, I'm quite happy with my pace. The conditions are really hot here, which will make life difficult for the tyres on Sunday, which is why I'm concentrating on trying to make the bike more rideable over race distance. My best qualifying lap today was okay, even if not perfect."

Following last weekend's Italian GP, where Bayliss and Capirossi had one 2003 bike and one 2004 bike apiece, they're both back to focusing on this year's machine, the team adopting a 'less is more' attitude to set-up, making as few changes as possible, to try and let the riders can get comfortable with their machinery.

"Now that we have a base set-up for this year's bike we are trying to change as little as possible," said team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli. "We are also making a lot of comparisons between the riders' different set-ups, trying to improve our overall set-up."