Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser finished the first day of qualifying for the eighth round of the World Superbike Championship at Brand Hatch with the second quickest time, nearly three-tenths-of-a-second under the existing lap record.

Throughout the day, he was right on the pace and made only minor adjustments to his GSX-R1000K6 during the two practice sessions.

His team mate Yukio Kagayama spent the day concentrating on finding a good set-up for the race and ended the day with the ninth fastest lap. Both Corser and Kagayama know that a front-row grid place is vital at Brands and will use tomorrow’s qualifying session and Superpole to make sure of finishing in the top four.

Fastest today is series leader Troy Bayliss ((Ducati) who posted a time of 1:26.272 at the 3.703 kilometre circuit.

Troy Corser - 2nd, 1:26.494:
“I felt today was quite good because I had a good feeling with the bike straight away. We started with last year’s Brands setting and then tried our set-up from Brno in the last round and the Brno set-up felt a lot better and the bike felt easier to ride. The lap times came pretty easily and I wasn't pushing at all, so I know there’s more to come tomorrow. All we’ll do tomorrow is make some minor changes in gearing and get a set-up good enough to finish in the top four in Superpole. At Brands it’s crucial to be on the front row and make a good start otherwise you get held up and it’s easy to lose touch with the leaders. So that’s tomorrow’s objective - the front row, preferably on pole!”

Yukio Kagayama - 9th, 1:27.165:
“Today my lap time was not good enough but my feeling for the bike’s set-up for the race is good! I had no big problems today and we will not do too much to the bike tomorrow morning except try some different suspension settings. But we will not be making any big changes because we already have a good base. I have to be on the front row of the grid because otherwise it is very difficult to finish in the top three. My plan is to be steady tomorrow, but do enough to be on the front row on Sunday. I have never won a race at Brands Hatch before so this weekend will be a good chance to change that.”