DRY SUPERPOLE ALLOWS TIMES TO TUMBLE A stunning Superpole lap from Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra), who had qualified fifth fastest in regulation, gave him his fourth Superpole win of the year, dropping the best SBK lap at Magny-Cours to an impressive 1'39.147. Corser has now scored 38 career Superpole victories, extending his all-time record still further. Of more significance in the shape of the 2006 championship table, perhaps, was the fact that James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) was second quickest and earned a front row start, while the man who sits only two points behind him in the championship, Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia), was fifth fastest and begins Sunday's races from the second row. The track surface at Magny-Cours had a chance to dry out before Superpole, after frequently changeable and often damp conditions had adversely affected final qualifying for all the riders this morning.

LANZI AND MUGGERIDGE RESURGENT AT MAGNY-COURS
2005 Magny-Cours race winner, Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) went third fastest after an aggressive and controlled Superpole lap, allowing him the luxury of a front row start, alongside another rider on the up, Karl Muggeridge (Winston ten Kate Honda) who was fourth fastest on the day.


CHAMPION BAYLISS ON ROW TWO With Noriyuki Haga fifth, the newly crowned 2006 champion, Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) was sixth, also into the 1'39s. On the Alstare Engineering Suzuki machine, Max Neukirchner jumped from 15th in regulation to seventh, and the last rider inside the 1'39s mark in Superpole. Three-time 2006 race winner, Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) starts eighth, and completes the second row for Sunday's 23-lap races.

CLOSE SUPERPOLE SQUEEZES SOME TOP NAMES OUT OF TOP SPOTS With the times in Superpole taking a tumble, thanks to the adoption of qualifying tyres on a dry track, Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) just missed a second row start, and Fonsi Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse), despite being the top Kawasaki rider on show, was only tenth fastest. Chris Walker, Nieto's team-mate, went 11th fastest after a typically aggressive lap, while top-placed French combatant was Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) in 12th place, and on the third row.

FOURTH ROW RIDERS INCLUDE POTENTIAL PODIUM MEN Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda) demonstrated how tough SBK is in 2006 but winning in Imola last week and only qualifying on the fourth row at Magny-Cours. Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) showed what a private Yamaha could do, when he scored 14th place, ahead of multiple SBK race winner of recent seasons, Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse). The top 16 Superpole places were completed by Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda) who looked much faster on track than his eventual 16th place qualification showed him to be.

CHILI MISSES SUPERPOLE BY A MILLIMETRE Pierfrancesco Chili (DFX Treme Honda) could not improve on his Friday time because of the poor track conditions in the second qualifying session, and thus just missed out on a Superpole qualifying time in his final SBK race weekend. He was, tantalisingly, 17th, with all riders behind in the exact same positions as they had been after Friday's first qualifying session, which was held in cold but largely dry conditions.

SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) has a mountain to climb to retain his championship in the Supersport class, but set up an impressive base camp by scoring yet another fastest-ever Supersport lap at Magny-Cours, 1'42.506. He is thus pole (his eighth such position this year), from his team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda). The young Turkish rider fell without injury just as the rains re-started in the middle of the session, as he himself went for a the pole. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) starts the race from the second row, but with 18 points in hand over Charpentier, he is still very much in the driving seat. Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) and David Checa (Yamaha GMT 94) complete the front row, after scoring third and fourth best times in the final session. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Megabike Honda) was sixth fastest, with the top Ducati once more being Gianluca Nannelli (SC Caracchi Ducati), seventh fastest.

SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP Claudio Corti (Yamaha Team Italia) was fastest in practice at Magny-Cours, scoring a 1'44.739 lap in the interrupted second session. Ayrton Badovini (Biassono Unionbike MV Agusta) was second, with Luca Scassa (EVR Corse Ormeni Racing - who was disqualified from the Imola results) third. Ilario Dionisi (Biassono Unionbike MV Agusta) remained fourth, while new champion Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki) was tenth.