The French rider was 0.4s faster than his Ten Kate Honda team-mate Pere Riba, the championship leader. Italian Ducati rider Vittoriano Guareschi had the home crowd going wild as he took third place in the closing stages of the one-hour session at the sun-kissed 3.6-mile circuit near Milan.

Paolo Casoli, last year's Monza race winner, was fourth quickest to complete the provisional front row of the grid for Sunday's 16-lap race. British Yamaha rider James Whitham was fifth fastest to lead a second row which includes wild card rider Alessio Corradi on a Yamaha, Piergiorgio Bontempi and Australian Andrew Pitt.

Christophe Cogan, in ninth, and Vittorio Iannuzzo complete the top 10. 

Karl Muggeridge was 14th today but is hopeful more is to come tomorrow - “It was very difficult out there today, because it’s nearly impossible to do a very fast time without at least one or really two slip streams. The bike is handling ok, the power is not so bad and we’ve made some slight gear box changes, which improved the bike from the morning practice. Tomorrow, Fuji and I will work together to have a better time, so hopefully we can work that out a bit better and pull our times down back on the front row. I know it’s possible I’ve done it last year with the Ten Kate, so we just have to see what we can do.”

Markus Barth was 20th fastest on his Alpha Technik Honda with BKM Honda's Kevin Curtain - currently second in the points standings - 21st and Adam Fergusson, also on an Alpha Technik Honda 23rd.

Castrol Honda's Chris Vermeulen ended his opening day of Monza action in 29th place, he commented: "I've never ridden at a circuit like this, it's breathtaking. The free practice this morning was wet so I only wobbled around but this afternoon I got going and I'm sure I can improve by at least two seconds tomorrow."

Cristiano Migliorati, replacing Ivan Goi in the BKM Honda team, was 31st on his Honda debut.

Friday's World Supersport qualifying times: 
1 Fabien Foret, France (Honda) 1m 54.260s, 
2 Pere Riba, Spain (Honda) 1m 54.676s, 
3 Vittoriano Guareschi, Italy (Ducati) 1m 54.988s, 
4 Paolo Casoli, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 55.137s, 
5 James Whitham, GB (Yamaha) 1m 55.175s, 
6 Alessio Corradi, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 55.298s, 
7 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 55.590s, 
8 Andrew Pitt, Australia (Kawasaki) 1m 55.711s, 
9 Christophe Cogan, France (Yamaha) 1m 55.734s, 
10 Vittorio Iannuzzo, Italy (Suzuki) 1m 55.747s.