Troy ended the day exactly where wanted to be - at the top of the standings after the first day of qualifying at Losail today. He posted a lap of 2:01.244, a tenth of a second quicker then his nearest rival Jose Louis Cardoso (Yamaha), with Regis Laconi (Ducati) third and Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha) fourth. Troy and his team mate Yukio Kagayama only completed the afternoon timed session because the morning practice was hit by strong rain and neither wanted to go out on the slippery surface and make any mistakes. Only nine riders braved the morning practice and most only completed a few laps - such was the greasy nature of the track.

TROY - 1st, 2:01.244 - "I knew it was going to be dry in the afternoon, because of a bird! Yesterday we did a bit of a photo-shoot with some camels and some falcons. I held this superb falcon on my hand (gloved of course!) and his owner took the hood off his head and eyes. The falcon was looking around, but didn’t seem at all concerned and was really quite calm. So I asked the owner if the bird was always so quiet and he said it is because the bird knows it is going to rain tomorrow! He said ‘the bird always goes quite just before it rains and don’t forget, it doesn’t rain that much here, so we take notice.’ So because of that I didn't go out in the morning. It would’ve been a pointless exercise anyway, because we would not have learnt anything. In the afternoon we made a few little adjustments and also did a bit of work on the mapping and we made some improvements in all areas, so I am happy. I think today’s lap times are going to be similar to the race times and I know I can go quicker if I have to, so I feel pretty relaxed about it all so far. The only problem is that this is not an easy track for overtaking, so a front row start is pretty crucial. Of course, I’ll be hoping to start from pole position and leave the rest to sort themselves out behind me."