The first day of qualifying of Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s final outing in the Superbike World Championship at Magny-Cours in France provided a tough test for riders Steve Martin and Craig Jones.

Technical problems hindered afternoon progress after a promising morning, with Steve finishing in 21st following a minor crash and Craig in 25th as Noriyuki Haga set the early pace of 1:40.474.

Steve said: “Everything was going okay in the morning but the afternoon did not exactly go to plan. I lost the front end on my second lap, which was just one of those things. But it meant that I had to go out on my second bike, which is a different spec and did not feel as good, so we decided to fix my number one bike. I tried the tyre that was supposed to produce the better times but I think one of the other tyres that I had tried earlier will be better for doing times. We will have everything under control tomorrow and then I can set about getting the bike into Superpole if the weather stays fine.”

Craig said: “I really like the track. It’s nothing like Imola, where you have to just bite the screen and hold on. The surface is good and there are a lot of hairpins, which suits my style because I bring the bike to a halt well. So, considering it’s my first time here and the fact that we had a few problems throughout the day, I’m not too far away. I did not make that much time up in the afternoon but I was more than a second up on one lap before I made a mistake in the final sector. After that we struggled to get the bike running properly and people were crashing in front of me so I wasn’t able to improve. But I think I can easily get into the 42s in the morning and maybe even challenge for Superpole.”