First pole joy for Foggy Petronas Racing.

Foggy Petronas Racing's Troy Corser will start tomorrow's races at round five of the Superbike World Championship in Germany in pole position after a stunning Superpole performance.

The Australian former world champion was more than half a second faster than his nearest rival in the one-lap shoot-out to determine grid positions at the tight and twisty circuit of Oschersleben.

Team-mate Chris Walker meanwhile also turned in a striking Superpole display on the Petronas FP1 - the first Malaysian superbike - in leaping from 14th to the second row of the grid, and without the benefit of the Pirelli qualifying tyre used by the rest of the riders.

Corser, whose previous pole position of the 29 in his career was at Imola in 2001, said: "That was the perfect lap. We have been working really hard to make the bike work on qualifying tyres. In the afternoon session chief engineer Steve Thompson made a radical change to the rear shock. It worked and we were able to improve times throughout that session. So the bike was spot on - I could go as fast as I wanted to go! It felt so easy!

"I didn't know what time to expect so, when I saw that I had gone under 1m 28 on the dashboard, I thought it was a mistake. The other guys on the front row have also been going pretty fast on race rubber, but there is not much in it and I have been pretty consistent on race tyres.

"If I can be up at the front on the first lap I am confident I can follow them round and then we will have to see what happens. I think the result will be down to tyre choice and how the rider uses the tyre. Bit it is also a long race so concentration will also be a big challenge."

Team owner Carl Fogarty missed his team's best ever qualifying, recovering from a knee operation at home in England. But he said: "That was unbelievable. I expected him to be pumped up to beat Chris, after his great lap. But Troy looked effortless, and that is when you know he is going fast. When I saw his time I rang the team straight away to find out whether it was the quickest of the weekend. I also spoke to Troy and told him that nobody would beat it. For Petronas, such a new manufacturer, to be on pole already against the likes of Ducati is incredible."

Both riders had ended the morning qualifying session complaining of persistent chatter in the qualifying tyre and posting slower times when using the softer rubber. While Corser gambled on the set-up changes, Walker opted to do his Superpole lap on race tyres yet still improved his fastest time of the weekend by half a second to achieve his best grid position for FPR.

"I am really happy with that performance, although we still have a little bit of work to do for the race because I am still struggling for grip at the rear on corner entry," said Walker. "I actually don't think I would have gone any quicker if I had used a qualifier. It has been hard work and we have tried a lot of things with the bike but I am going gradually faster and consistently faster, which is what will help over 28 laps."

Chief engineer Steve Thompson summed-up: "In the free practice session we had two qualifying tyres and I knew that to make one of them work we would have to do something quite radical to the rear shock. But we then had to reset the geometry for the whole of the rear of the bike to compensate for this. We have never used this type of setting before but, once we knew we were going in the right direction, we made one further change before Superpole and it paid off. That lap time was absolutely exceptional."