Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin are both hoping for dry conditions for Saturday qualifying at the seventh round of the Superbike World Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic.

Both riders narrowly missed out on the top 16 positions after Friday qualifying and, with mixed forecasts for tomorrow, wet weather could scupper their chances of making further progress with lap times in the morning.

On their first visit to the circuit on the PETRONAS FP1, and for Steve his first ever visit to the fast and undulating track, both Australians were able to make consistent progress throughout the day.

However, facing the rare choice of two Pirelli qualifying tyres, Steve opted for the newer compound and improved his best lap by half a second while Garry, despite three laps on the traditional qualifier, also missed out on the top 16 by just 0.2 seconds.

Garry said: "I knew this circuit was going to be tough for the bike because there are a couple of uphill sections and the straights are fairly long. Coming to a place I know though, I thought I would be able to find that little bit extra. And, in race conditions, we are not looking too bad and could be in the top ten. Maybe the new qualifier will work better if the temperatures are lower tomorrow morning but, having hoped for wet weather this weekend, we need it to be dry tomorrow now. We shortened the gears after the morning session and we still have a few things to try with the suspension, front and rear."

Steve said: "We are getting quicker all the time and I am pretty happy with my first day here. The circuit is great, although it's one of those wide open tracks where a lot of acceleration and horsepower is needed. We have to hope that it doesn't raining tomorrow and, although I am disappointed not to be in Superpole at the moment, I will be happy as long as we keep improving. I wanted to do a lot of laps in the morning so only used one rear, and then only two in the afternoon. I also used the new qualifier, which is not thought to have as much grip."