Winston Ten Kate rider Karl Muggeridge, set the fastest qualifying time prior to this afternoon’s Superpole event. In glorious sunshine, Muggas first eclipsed Troy Corer’s fastest time by six tenths of a second and Regis Laconi’s 2004 Superpole by over a second.

Karl comments: “It certainly feels good to be at the top of the times but it’s not over yet. We improved the chassis a little bit again this morning and we are working on some improvement for the brakes, which are very important here at Monza. I definitely think we found the direction we’ve been looking for. We’ll see what Superpole brings this afternoon.”

After a disappointing Superpole for Muggas he will start tomorrow’s two 18-lap races from front row of the grid at round four of the World Superbike Championship at the historic 5.8 km Monza Autodromo.

As the fastest rider heading into this afternoon’s Superpole event, Muggeridge lost six tenths of a second going into the first chicane on his one flying lap but recovered enough to post the fourth fastest time.

Muggas comments: “Oh, man – that’s very disappointing. It just all went wrong at the braking point at the end of the start finish straight, so I missed the first corner and got that chicane really bad. I think I was about ninth after the first split – six tenths down – which shows how badly it was screwed up. The rest of the lap went great and I managed to climb back into fourth position. It’s a real shame, because I’ve been comfy all weekend since the first session on Friday morning. We’ve been moving the package forward in each session since then and that allowed me to be fastest going into Superpole. That’s the nature of the event though. I’m real happy on my race tyre and confident of battling well at the front but, for sure, pole would have been great.”