Biaggi, who closed to within 29 points of Toseland with one-two race finishes last Sunday at Vallelunga, was just 13th and 14th during Friday's rain-interrupted track action.
"I know I have been here before but the conditions - and the bike - were very different then," said the Roman, who tested at Magny-Cours at the end of 2006. "That was about a year ago, so basically I started afresh here today. At the moment I a still trying to learn the secrets of the track but once I do that, I can push a lot harder. We started today with our Vallelunga set-up but it didn't really work, so we will make changes for tomorrow. This afternoon it wasn't necessary to take any risks so I just rode steadily and tried to get us much info as possible to help us tomorrow."
Meanwhile, Biaggi's regular Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra team-mate
Yukio Kagayama was forced to withdraw from the event because of the injuries to his right hand and knee.
In his absence, Max Neukirchner, who normally rides for Suzuki Germany, was handed the second factory GSX-R1000 K7 - and was one place in front of Biaggi in first qualifying.
"Even before the conditions worsened in the afternoon, I wanted to ride steadily and get to know the bike and the team," began Neukirchner. "The Alstare Suzuki K7 feels very different to my K6 and works much better in all areas. The chassis, engine and brakes are wonderful and I found it quite easy to get a good rhythm in the morning untimed session. I spent the day learning the bike and also the team. I know that this is not going to be an easy weekend so I have to try and get a lot of work done very quickly. In qualifying this afternoon, the track never completely dried out and because the new parts of tarmac are very dark, it was impossible to see how wet it was in places. I didn't want to crash so I took it pretty steadily this afternoon, knowing that tomorrow we will see a big improvement."
