Régis Laconi set second quickest time in today's opening qualifying session at Brands Hatch, the Ducati Xerox Team rider clocking a 1m27.652s, half-a-second off the pace of early frontrunner Troy Corser (Suzuki). James Toseland was in eighth place on the provisional Friday grid, but just four-tenths of a second off his team-mate's time, as four different manufacturers took the top four slots on the timesheets.

"I am quite happy with the session, we've still got a bit more work to do because the bike is not yet perfect to ride" declared Laconi. "The feeling is good however and I think that with two or three changes we can go even quicker tomorrow. I have to say that this track is beautiful to ride, the ups and downs are fantastic. I think that I can improve mainly in the final part, from the Westfield right before Dingle Dell. This year they have closed up the entrance to the curve and it's ruined it. We've still got to get the bike set up well for this part because in the first split it's going really well."

"I'm not overjoyed by the position to be honest and we've still got a lot to do on the bike. It feels so different after the good setting we had at Mugello this week and we're quite a way off" commented Toseland. "But despite this I'm quietly confident and we know which direction to go in. To be only point four off second place after riding it like that, I'm quite pleasantly surprised to be honest. I finished the lap and the time was good, although I felt that it was up in the 35s. I lost the front twice on two of my quick laps and I had a few problems and before you know it I had lost about 25 minutes of the session. And to only have had that much lap time I'm quite happy."