Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama finished the first day of qualifying at the World Superbike Championship 10th round at Eurospeedway Lausitz well placed in second and third positions.

Both will use tomorrow morning’s timed qualifying to improve their GSX-R1000 K6 Suzukis and then go all-out in Superpole in the afternoon.

The 4.265 kilometre German circuit, with its mixture of fast straights and slow turns, always means that the best combination of set-up and gearing is vital for consistent fast laps.

Max Neukirchner carried on his steep learning curve on the first day of qualifying. Although he only finished 24th quickest, he was happy because he had improved his time by over two seconds from the morning un-timed session.

Series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) set the quickest time of the day with a lap of 1:38.331 in the closing stages of the session. Completing the provisional front row is Aussie Andrew Pitt (Yamaha).

Troy Corser - 2nd, 1:38.550:
“Well that’s the happiest I’ve been for a long time on a Friday afternoon. I was the quickest out there today, but then I think that Bayliss stuck in a softer tyre right at the end of the session. The grip was definitely up since this morning and that made quite a difference to our set-up. We tried some different gearings this afternoon and it was better in some places and not so good in others, so now we’ll change the internals and we should be able to improve quite a bit. But, as I said, I’m pretty happy this afternoon.”

Yukio Kagayama - 3rd, 1:38.869:
“This morning my body felt a little tired but I think that’s because I was fighting a cold or maybe flu. But, in the afternoon I felt much better and I was more comfortable on the bike because I was able to concentrate harder. The lap times this afternoon are not so bad, but I prefer a higher position! I had a problem with one tyre today, but apart from that nothing serious. Tomorrow we'll change the rear suspension a little to see if I can get the power down better exiting the turns. “

Max Neukirchner -24th, 1:41.334:
“There’s always lots to learn when you jump onto a new bike and we’re having to do all our learning during a race weekend, so there’s lots to do and not so much time to do it. Certainly the set-up of the bike felt better in the afternoon and now we’ll make some changes tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll improve some more.”