Michelin Monza day one report

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada - Michelin) hits top form to set pace with fastest time in opening qualifying for Sunday's fifth round of the World Superbike championship as world champion Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda - Michelin) bounces back from a crash in the afternoon session to post the fifth best time.

Superbike
Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada - Michelin) took provisional pole position for Sunday's fifth round of the World Superbike championship at Monza in Italy with his best lap in the dying seconds of the one- hour qualifying session on Friday afternoon.

Bayliss holds provisional pole position for Sunday's two 18-lap races ahead of Ducati team-mate Ben Bostrom with championship leader Troy Corser third. Ducati's Neil Hodgson, the reigning British Superbike champion, was fourth fastest.

Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda - Michelin) leads the provisional second row of the grid in fifth palce but the 27-year-old Texan is confident of improving in Saturday's qualifying after he crashed halfway through the session.

Edwards escaped injury in the crash at the fast, sweeping Ascari chicane. Corser's Alessandro Antonello completes the top six going into Saturday morning's qualifying and the afternoon's Superpole competition.

Supersport
Team Ten Kate Honda riders Fabien Foret and Pere Riba are first and second after the opening day's qualifying for round four of the World Supersport championship at Monza. Vittoriano Guareschi (Dienza Ducati Racing - Michelin Pilot) made a late charge in the one-hour session to take third place while last year's race winner Paolo Casoli was fourth to complete the provisional front row.

-Michelin