Toseland on top

James Toseland topped the time sheets in first free practice with an impressive 2m 00.029s lap onboard his Ten Kate Honda.
   The 26-year-old Brit spent the session fine tuning his advanced electronics and back to back testing last years race tyres with some of the new 2007 spec Pirellis.
   Second fastest was Suzuki’s Yukio Kagayama who upstaged his new team-mate Max Biaggi with a 2m.00.319 lap time.
    Fellow countryman Noriyuki Haga upped his game from his pre-season testing to go third fastest onboard the new R1.
   Troy Bayliss made an initially slow start to his title defence, but as the session went on he began to up his pace.

Concentrating on tyre choice and suspension tweaks Bayliss was often the fastest through the first two splits but seemed to lose time in the final split, which includes the slow speed final turn onto the start straight. 

Max Biaggi came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders to set his fastest time just minutes into the one hour session, but never bettered his time and dropped to fifth.

Troy Corser shook off an early crash on only his second flying lap to end the opening session in sixth place. 

The Australian had to park his number one bike, but still managed to set a lap within 0.5 seconds of Toseland’s pole lap on his second bike.

Brit Dean Ellison finished his first Superbike session in 21st place onboard his Pedercini Ducati 999 RS. 

Ellison who was riding at the 5.3KM circuit for the first time was the fastest rider through the speed trap when he clocked 309.2KM, 6.1KM faster than Bayliss’ factory Ducati.

Free practice times:

J Toseland, Honda 2.00.02

Y Kagayama, Suzuki 2’00.31

N Haga, Yamaha 2.00.37

T Bayliss, Ducati 2.00.39

M Biaggi, Suzuki 2.00.50

T Corser, Yamaha 2.00.54

L Lanz, Ducati 2.00.65

R Xaus, Ducati 2.01.59

M Fabrizio, Honda 2.01.63

F Nieto, Kawasaki 2.01.67

R Laconi, Kawasaki 2.02.14

K Muggeridge, Honda 2.02.26

R Rolfo, Honda 2.02.32

M Neukirchner, Suzuki 2.02.54

J Brookes, Honda 2.02.60

S Martin, Honda 2.03.00

J Smrz, Ducati 2.04.04

S Nakatomi, Yamaha 2.04.54

C Zaise, MV Agusta 2.04.71

A Polita, Suzuki 2.05.30

D Ellison, Ducati 2.07.32

 J Drazdak, Yamaha 2.08.14

 M Al Naimi, Kawasaki 2.08.96