Yamaha Motor Italia's Andrew Pitt ended today's first qualifying session in sixth position on his first acquaintance with the remodeled Assen circuit in the Netherlands, with team-mate Noriyuki Haga just behind in ninth.

As usual, the Australian spent the day's two sessions working on a race setting for Sunday's two 22-lap races, spending most of his time circulating with used tyres and heavy fuel loads. The Misano race winner put on a new set of rubber on his last stint to find a one-second improvement in his lap time. His 1:40.474 places him just over a second behind fastest man Troy Bayliss (Ducati).

The Assen track has been radically remodeled since the superbike series visited last September, with a shorter circuit making lap times around 25 seconds less than on the previous incarnation - much to the displeasure of many riders who miss the fast and flowing opening section of the old track.

Haga remained unfussed with the new layout, spending the entire session on a single set of tyres to simulate a full race distance. The Japanese star was generally happy with his day's work but will work with his technicians in a bid to solve a tyre chatter problem and find some additional traction from his machine.Despite concentrating on race trim, Haga ended the session just a few tenths of a second behind his team-mate Pitt finishing the session in ninth place.

Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert led the Yamaha Motor France trio, setting the 16th fastest time on has YZF-R1. Team-mate Norick Abe was the fastest rider through the speed trap, recording a top speed of 278 kph.Despite the obvious speed of his Yamaha, the former MotoGP rider struggled to find an ideal set-up for the twisting circuit, ending the session in 18th. Yamaha Motor France's third rider, Shinichi Nakatomi, was 25th fastest on his first visit to the legendary circuit. He spent the two hours track time learning the layout of the circuit and hopes to cut his lap time significantly in tomorrow morning's second qualifying session.

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"I struggled for most of the session but we changed the balance of the bike at the end and found a big improvement. We tried to get through as much as we could today, just in case it rains tomorrow, and it was hard work. In the end I improved my lap time by a second at the end, although it didn't feel that fast when I was out there. We still need to work on the set-up for the race though, although I think we've found the tyre to use in the race. It's a shame that they've changed the circuit because the bit that's been taken out was my favourite part. The new section is not really a problem, though, as it is so slow that you can probably run anything through there, it's the rest of the circuit where I still have a few problems."

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
"Not so bad. It's a new circuit now so it was important to learn the layout. The new part is slower not a problem for me, but we have a bit of chatter and I would like some more rear traction. We'll change some settings for tomorrow and I think that this will be a solution. I hope so, but as always we must just wait and see what tomorrow brings."

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France)
"It's been a busy time recently as I have been testing at Magny Cours for the Bol d'Or. I'm quite confident for this weekend. Already the feeling with the bike is good and I think that we will be able to have a good weekend here."

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France)
"I'm looking to improve on 19th place tomorrow and I think that if we can make some improvements to the settings then we can challenge for superpole tomorrow."

Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France)
"After a month's break in Japan my wife and family are with me in Europe for the first time, which is very nice. Today I had to learn the Assen track, as I have never been here before, so I am confident that I can make some improvements to my time tomorrow."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia)
"The settings for both riders were not the best today but they are in the top ten and making progress. Nori worked on his race setting and only used one set of tyres in the qualifying session, while Andrew had found it hard until the end, when he put a different tyre in and made a big improvement. It is only Friday so we must see what happens tomorrow."

Yamaha Motor Germany's Broc Parkes set the second fastest time in today's first qualifying session for Sunday's ninth round of the Supersport World Championship in Assen.

The Australian, winner last time out in Brands Hatch, was just four tenths of a second behind the day's fastest rider, defending world champion Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), around the revised Dutch circuit. Joining the two championship front runners on the provisional front row are Suzuki riders Kai Borre Andersen and Barry Veneman.

Parkes' team-mate Kevin Curtain, joint championship leader with Charpentier, ended the day ninth as he tried various settings on his YZF-R6. One place ahead of Curtain is Yamaha GMT94's David Checa with Yamaha Team Italia's Gianluca Vizziello and Massimo Roccoli in 11th and 13th places respectively.