Action Stations: Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki rider Troy Corser scored yet another early season high with the fastest time of the opening day, heading up both unofficial and official qualifying session at Valencia. The championship leader set a time of 1’35.954, almost 0.8 seconds faster than his closest rival, when it really mattered this afternoon. Each session was held in almost ideal conditions with just a gentle breeze blowing around the stadium-style circuit.

Walker Strolls On: An outstanding first period for Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) saw him well up the qualifying order from the start to the finish. Ultimately second quickest on his ZX-10, hard work in the chassis and suspension department, plus a machine capable of posting the highest top speed of the day, 288kmph, conspired to help the Englishman’s effort.

Klaffinators: The Klaffi team has made a serious impact in World Superbike in 2005, a superb effort in its rookie season in the top category. Despite a recent collarbone operation for Pierfrancesco Chili, to repair the break he suffered at the Phillip Island race, the experienced Italian set third fastest time of all. He was closely followed by his rookie SBK team-mate, Max Neukirchner, who is still working on suspension set-up. Third in race two in Australia, Neukirchner has already shown his true talent, and at the first time of asking on his full spec machine at Valencia, he secured fourth best time, 1.173 seconds from provisional pole.

Muggeridge Fifth: Winston Ten Kate riders Karl Muggeridge and Chris Vermeulen had differing fortunes on day one, with Muggeridge well in the leading mix; his more experienced Superbike team-mate Vermeulen in 16th place. Diversity was the key in the top positions at Valencia, as Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki) and Ivan Clementi (Bertocchi Kawasaki) went sixth and seventh fastest respectively.

Martin Up Front: A second row provisional qualifying position was a good reward for the Petronas team on day one, with Steve Martin taking eighth fastest time in a highly competitive session. His speed saw the fastest Petronas ahead of the fastest Ducati, to the immense satisfaction of the entire Petronas effort. That honour this weekend was taken by the SC Ducati 999RS of Lorenzo Lanzi, ninth fastest on his booming vee-twin.

Yamaha Hanging Tough For Day Two: Fastest Yamaha R1 rider on display in Spain was Yamaha Motor France IPONE rider Norick Abe, an SBK rookie but a hugely experienced rider in other classes of global races. He was the last rider inside the top ten. Jose Luis Cardoso (DFX
Extreme Yamaha) and Ivan Silva (LaGlisse) gave the first day its first smattering of Spanish flavour, going 13th and 14th respectively. Official entries from Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt, both Yamaha Motor Italia, and Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor Italia) struggled somewhat on day one. Gimbert crashed, yet still set 17 laps to go 15th. Haga was 21st, Pitt 24th.

Ducati Doldrums: The competitiveness of the 2005 season was perfectly illustrated by the fact that the official factory Ducati pairing of Regis Laconi (Xerox Ducati 999F05) and James Toseland were in 11th and 12th positions after day one, behind a whole gaggle of fast multi-cylinder entries. Toseland was a race one winner last year, Laconi the winner of the greatest number of 2004 individual legs.

Other Notable Names: Petronas rider Garry McCoy’s 17th place came after 21 laps of action, with local wild card rider Davide Checa (GMT94 Yamaha) scoring the top number of circuits, matching his qualifying position of 27. Local hotshot Fonsi Nieto (SC Ducati 999RS) is still adjusting to life on a big cc vee-twin, and ran out 18th fastest of the 33 prospective qualifiers. The SBK ‘big grid’ saw Ben Bostrom, aided by some new team personnel and machinery, 20th out of 33.

Supersport:
Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Sebastien Charpentier continued his magnificent early season form to take the best time on day one, pushing his machine to a 1’38.351 lap in glorious conditions.
With temperatures in the mid twenties Charpentier's own team-mate, Qatar race winner Katsuaki Fujiwara, was second quickest at this generally tight and twisty track. Some 0.404 seconds down on Charpentier, Fujiwara was nonetheless almost one second faster than another WSS legend, 2002 World Champion Fabien Foret (Team Italia Megabike Honda), who finished day one in third place. The top Yamaha runner was wild card man Victor Carrasco (LaGlisse Yamaha), the last rider on the provisional front row of the grid. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) edged out Michel Fabrizio (Team Italia Megabike Honda) for fifth fastest, with top Suzuki rider proving to be Javier Fores (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki).

On Saturday 23 April the final qualifying sessions for both Superbike and Supersport take place, with Superpole following on to determine final grid positions.