Iain MacPherson and Andrew Pitt started in fine fashion with the fastest and fourth fastest times in the opening qualifying.

“The last race at Misano was really good for me and now I think we’re on the right track. I think I’m riding within myself and I’m not pushing too hard. There’s a lot more to come and another pole would be just great.” commented MacPherson.

Katsuaki Fujiwara was second quickest with Ten Kate Honda's Pere Riba - winner of the opening round of the series - third, pipping MacPherson's team-mate Andrew Pitt. “The bikes working well for both of us at the moment and everything is fitting together. We’ve really needed to set a fast time in the opening session so it takes away a lot of pressure for tomorrow. Everyone usually goes quicker on Saturday so we still have to find a little more speed to stay on the front row,” said Pitt.

Veteran Fabrizio Pirovano heads a provisional row two on his Suzuki, alongside fellow Italians Piergiorgio Bontempi and Paolo Casoli with Briton Steve Plater, making his debut on the Alpha Technik Honda, eighth.

Suzuki Alstare Rider Karl Muggeridge finished on 11th place.  During the long break for the Supersport riders, Muggas and his team did some tests last week in Belgium and Assen and made some good improvements to the suspension, which hopefully will improve the feel for the Bike here at Brands Hatch.

Muggas comments: “Well, it’s not too bad, but it’s not really the result we have been looking for today. We had some gear-box problems today but we can fix that, it’s only Friday and I’m confident that we will worked it out before tomorrow’s final qualifying. The tyres are looking good, we had a new rear to try which worked well around here and we made some good progress with suspension comparing to the last round. So we have to see what happens for tomorrow ”

Castrol Honda's Chris Vermeulen took 12th place and commented: "That was a good session for me. It's the first time I've ever got a rear, soft compound race tyre working and I achieved a quick lap so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's session."

Alpha Technik Honda's Adam Fergusson was 15th fastest on his Brands Hatch debut with Ten Kate Honda's Fabien Foret 16th. Kevin Curtain - winner of the Australian and German rounds was 23rd aboard his BKM Honda with team-mate Cristiano Migliorati 31st.  Shannon Johnson was 33rd quickest but still only 2 seconds from the front row.

Friday's World Supersport qualifying times: 
1 Iain MacPherson, GB (Kawasaki) 1m 30.170s,
2 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 30.184s,
3 Pere Riba, Spain (Honda) 1m 30.332s,
4 Andrew Pitt, Australia (Kawasaki) 1m 30.429s,
5 Fabrizio Pirovano, Italy (Suzuki) 1m 30.476s,
6 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 30.483s,
7 Paolo Casoli, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 30.535s,
8 Steve Plater, GB (Honda) 1m 30.603s,
9 Matt Llewellyn, GB (Yamaha) 1m 30.650s,
10 Karl Harris, GB (Suzuki) 1m 30.734s.