Toseland on top with traction control.

James Toseland signalled his intent to seal second in the 2006 Corona Extra Superbike World Championship by taking provisional pole at Imola - on his first competitive outing with traction control fitted to his Ten Kate Honda.

Toseland will start Sunday's pair of races just six points behind Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga, but the Japanese was only eleventh fastest on Friday while Toseland took his Ten Kate Honda to the top by lapping 0.211secs ahead of Suzuki's reigning world champion Troy Corser - with Troy Bayliss, expected to clinch the 2006 crown on Sunday, a fraction slower in third for Toseland's former Ducati Xerox Team.

"The reactions of the bike were very good and the tyres are working well, so I think set-up and tyre life on a race set-up are already pretty good. We did a consistent and fast run on what we hope will be our race tyre," said former world champion Toseland. "The engine mapping and electronics changes were really good, even if we used traction control at only a small percentage of its settings. So far so good, and we're going in a good direction with set-up."

"A good start to the race weekend for James, pretty consistently fast on the race tyres. He is already enjoying some benefits with the traction control system from PI Research, which we have added to the machine since the Magny-Cours test session. We are also using it here for the first time in a race weekend," confirmed team manager Ronald Ten Kate. "We still have some issues to resolve on the machine in general, especially the rear end, which we have to improve a bit. I'm sure that we will be capable of making the bike even better tomorrow. It's all looking good but there is still some work to do today and tomorrow."

Toseland's team-mate Karl Muggeridge was 12th fastest.