The qualification efforts of Foggy Petronas Racing riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin for fourth round of the Superbike World Championship at Monza were obstructed during an incident-packed afternoon session on the first day.

The Australian pair finished the first day in 15th and 23rd positions respectively, with Troy Corser again setting a challenging pace.

Garry was unable to complete a clean fast lap on qualifying rubber, being forced to pick his way through the aftermath of a crash at the second chicane.

Steve's day was interrupted by technical problems, including a mechanical failure on his flying lap on a qualifying tyre.

However, both riders believe they have a clear direction forward and are confident of qualifying for tomorrow's Superpole shoot-out.

Garry said: "On my fast lap two people went down at the second chicane. I braked and then one guy ran in front of me on the track. There were dudes in orange suits and bikes everywhere - I was spewing. I tried for another lap on the qualifying tyre and even on that lap there were yellow flags out going into the last turn as someone else had gone down! I felt pretty good on the first fast lap and I am pretty happy with my overall set-up. The tyre that felt good this morning wasn't so good in the higher temperatures of the afternoon, so we just have to try different tyres tomorrow and see what is going to last race distance."

Steve said: "It's not really where I wanted to be at the end of the first day but I am pretty confident I can do a time to get into Superpole tomorrow morning. But I only had one-and-a-half laps on new tyres during the afternoon session. After the morning I needed to work on three areas. By the end of the day we seemed to have fixed the problems with the bike braking in a straight line and we also made progress with the gearing. But we still have more work to do on mid-corner grip at the rear."