Garry McCoy led the Foggy PETRONAS Racing challenge on the first day of the fifth round of the Superbike World Championship at Silverstone, Great Britain, today.

The Australian finished the afternoon qualifying session in 11th place, but within 0.8 seconds of the fastest time around the shorter International circuit, set by Regis Laconi.

Team-mate Steve Martin struggled with set-up throughout the day and finished day in 24th position, although both riders were pleased with ignition system developments.

Garry had improved his race pace by more than three quarters of a second before challenging the leading pack with a qualifying lap of 1:28.449.

Garry said: "We are close to the top of the page and have had no problems today. Hopefully it will keep going that way and the things that we think we can improve for tomorrow will improve our position. The team are working as hard as they can and I am doing the best I can, as we all have all season, although we haven't always had the best of luck. We have to work on pumping at the rear, as the shock seems to be putting a lot of work through the rear tyre. That made it petty hard to choose a rear tyre and they all seemed to slide after a couple of laps. I was losing a bit of grip towards the end of the qualifying lap too. The new ignition system has worked well, although we still need to fine-tune that for this circuit."

Steve said: "I am struggling to come to terms with the set-up. I had a few chatter problems and finally put in a front tyre which cured that a bit. But at that stage the set-up was too hard at the front and I was having to brake too hard into the fast corners. If I can get that sorted out tomorrow I can pick up a fair bit of time. I have to hope that the weather gives me a chance to make Superpole."