Neukirchner, who bounced back from his Valencia nightmare to take his first podium since 2005 last time out at Assen, snatched the top spot with three minutes remaining to finish 0.369secs clear of Ducati's world championship leader Troy Bayliss.

"I want to say thank you to Yukio for helping me do my fast lap today. At Monza you need help if you want to set a really good time and Yukio was great," said Max. "I'm happy with how things worked out today and happy because I think we have a pretty good bike set-up.

"We'll make some small adjustments tomorrow to see if we can improve the bike, but it will not be anything major. Tomorrow we'll do some work on the electronics and maybe the engine-braking to try and get the best possible set-up for race day," he added.

Having helped Neukirchner to provisional pole, Kagayama concluded the day in a promising third position at a circuit where the factory-backed GSX-Rs are expected to be tough to beat on the straights.

"My feeling today is good," said the Japanese. "We started the day with the settings from Assen and they worked pretty well really. I had some small problems braking, but that was because of front fork settings, not the brakes themselves. The team made some changes and the bike improved. Towards the end of this afternoon's qualifying, I was using hard tyre - for a test - but I'm sure I could've gone faster if I had used a softer tyre. Maybe I could've been second or even first! Although slipstreaming is very important here, I would prefer to be on my own because then I can push much harder. I think Monza might be good for us and that is what I am hoping for."

But it was not such a good day for the third Alstare Suzuki of Fonsi Nieto. The Spaniard crashed during qualifying, fortunately without injury, but lost valuable track time - leaving him eleventh.

"I am not so happy today because I had a small crash, lost some time in the qualifying session and that meant I missed the chance to go for a quick lap time," confirmed Fonsi. "The crash happened at the Parabolica when I went into the gravel. The tyre wall was approaching, so I had no choice but to lay the bike down. Luckily I didn't hurt myself or do any further damage to my left knee. It is a bit sore when I'm on the bike, but it will not affect me in the race."