WSS: Charpentier takes provisional pole.

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mates Sebastien Charpentier and Kenan Sofuoglu secured a provisional front row start for round six of championship at Monza on Friday.

Reigning double champion Charpentier has made a good recovery from injuries sustained earlier in the season and is fighting fit for this weekend's event. After experiencing a few small problems in the morning free practice, the determined Frenchman proved that he is back with a vengeance by setting the fastest lap in the official qualifying. He finished with a time of 1min 50.711secs - just over a tenth of a second away from the best lap he set at Monza in 2006.

"The session this afternoon was better than this morning. Sometimes you just wake up and don't have a good feeling and today was one of those days," admitted Sebastien. "This morning the feeling wasn't good and also the bike had a few small problems. The team worked really hard before the official session and I worked harder during the session so it was better. We still have some work to do on the bike and we will change a few things for tomorrow but this is normal for the first day. I am happy because I was pretty close to my best lap from last year. Tomorrow I'll work hard to make sure I get the best position I can for Hannspree Ten Kate Honda."

Sofuoglu started the day on top form by setting the fastest lap in the morning free practice. He continued this strong performance by securing the best lap four times this afternoon, before his team-mate stole the top spot in the last few minutes of the session. Sofuoglu's final time was just 0.080 seconds off Charpentier's.

"It was a good qualifying session today," said the runaway championship leader. "It's always on my mind to remain in the front row. I'm already seconds faster than I was here last year so I'm really pleased with that. Tomorrow I'll be aiming to stay in the top four and also work on my race distance because Monza is a long track. I'm happy with the bike - we don't have too much to change overnight and in fact, we haven't changed it too much since Assen. We have found a good base set-up now and I have high hopes for the weekend."

A good day for the CBR men was completed when Althea Honda's Katsuaki Fujiwara went third quickest, only 0.155 seconds from provisional pole. GIL Kawasaki's Fabien Foret led the Kawasaki charge in fourth, while Yamaha World Supersport rider Broc Parkes was the top R6 runner in fifth.

A variety heavy top ten featured the Pioneer Hoegee Suzuki of Barry Veneman sixth and another Kawasaki, that of Pere Riba, seventh. Kevin Curtain's latest stand-in at the Yamaha WSSP team, Anthony West, was eighth, just over a second from pole.