Troy Bayliss exercised Ducati's strength around the Misano circuit in first qualifying for the eighth World Superbike round of the season with a comfortable provisional pole position.
Looking to make it a seventh win in 11 starts at the San Marino circuit, Bayliss returned to prominence in style after being edged by
Troy Corser during first free practice, the championship leader emerging as the only rider to dip below 1min 37secs.
Behind Bayliss though, there was a distinct Ducati theme at the head of the field with the Italian marque filling out five of the top eight positions. Most notable of these was arguably Jakub Smrz, who was an impressive second fastest on the Guandalini machine.
Practice pace setter Corser was next up in third on the Yamaha, with his team-mate
Noriyuki Haga in fifth place and sandwiching the leading Sterilgarda Ducati of Max Biaggi.
It was a good session for Kawasaki, with
Regis Laconi hauling his special liveried PSG-1 machine up to sixth place, while
Makoto Tamada and Ayrton Badovini were also looking racy in 12th and 13th places too.
Lorenzo Lanzi followed fellow privateer Smrz in breaking into the upper echelons of the order in seventh, ahead of man of the moment
Ruben Xaus, Max Neukirchner and
Karl Muggeridge.
Michel Fabrizio and
Carlos Checa took a tumble down the order in 14th and 15th positions, while
Yukio Kagayama appears to be struggling with his hand injury as he could only manage provisional 20th place on the grid.
