In warm sunshine Foret battled it out with Fujiwara, who finished on provisional pole. But Fabien Foret was unruffled, "It's a great start to the weekend," said Foret. "We've made some changes to the Honda CBR600FS since Kyalami, they're just minor changes but they've really made a difference. It's very close at the front at the moment but we've still got more to come. I'd like to take pole tomorrow but it's the race that really counts. We are concentrating getting everything just right for the race, the Pirelli tyres are working really well and the WP suspension is already spot on so I am very confident for the race."

Foret's team mate Iain MacPherson had a mixed day, he crashed early on in the free practice and lost the rest of the session as a result. Then in qualifying he got off line entering a corner while coming up to pass another rider. He got his front wheel onto a dirty part of the track and low-sided his Honda. "There wasn't much I could do about it," said MacPherson afterwards. "The front end just went away from me. It's a shame because everything felt good but the crash came late in the session, just when we would normally put on our best qualifying tyres for some fast laps."

Team Manager Ronald ten Kate was happy with the day's work. "The changes we made to the bikes are already working very well, as you can see from Fabien's lap times. We already have a great set up with the Pirelli tyres and WP suspension and Fabien was almost on pole. It's a shame that Iain hasn't had a chance to really get stuck in today, having been robbed of valuable track time by his crashes. But I'm confident he'll be right on the pace tomorrow."

1. Katsuaki Fujiwara - Suzuki - 1m32.852s
2. Fabien Foret - Honda - 1m32.853s
3. Paolo Casoli - Yamaha - 1m32.898s
4. Piergiorgio Bontempi - Ducati - 1m33.265s
5. Stephane Chambon - Suzuki - 1m33.329s
6. James Whitham - Yamaha - 1m33.333s
7. Karl Muggeridge - Honda - 1m33.356s
8. Chris Vermeulen - Honda - 1m33.370s
9. Tatsuya Yamaguchi - Honda - 1m33.371s
10. Iain MacPherson - Honda - 1m33.402s
11. Werner Daemen - Honda - 1m33.680s
12. Christian Kellner - Yamaha - 1m33.730s
13. Jorg Teuchert - Yamaha - 1m33.830s
14. Andrew Pitt - Kawasaki - 1m33.874s
15. Kevin Curtain - Yamaha - 1m33.925s
16. Alessio Corradi - Yamaha - 1m34.282s
17. Antonio Carlacci - Yamaha - 1m34.478s
18. Christophe Cogan - Honda - 1m35.049s
19. David De Gea - Honda - 1m35.142s
20. Stefano Cruciani - Yamaha - 1m35.332s
21. Robert Frost - Yamaha - 1m35.398s
22. Mark Willis - Yamaha - 1m35.627s
23. Gianluca Nannelli - Ducati - 1m35.885s
24. James Ellison - Kawasaki - 1m35.958s
25. Diego Giugovaz - Yamaha - 1m36.731s