Leon Haslam set fourth-fastest time in yesterday's opening qualifying session for round seven of the World Superbike Championship at Miller Motosports Park, Salt Lake City, in America

Team Suzuki Alstare team mate Sylvain Guintoli - in his first visit to the circuit - finished 17th, but the Frenchman hopes for improvement tomorrow.

Jakub Smrz (Ducati) set the quickest lap of qualifying with a time of 1:48.517, three-tenths-of-a-second inside the lap record. Second today was Michel Fabrizio (Ducati), with Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) third.

Leon Haslam - 4th, 1:48.734:

"I think today was pretty good and I certainly got a feel for the track this morning. This afternoon we used some of the good stuff (tyres) that we'll be racing on and I am pretty happy with how we got on. We had a bit of a chatter-problem today and it was worse the more aggressive I was, but not so bad when I rode smoothly: Though when I rode very smoothly, my lap times were not so good! The general layout of this track needs a very different set-up to Kyalami in the last round and although our current set-up is not bad, we will try and improve it and the balance of the bike tomorrow. The aim tomorrow is to work on getting a good set-up and making sure that the tyres will last a race distance OK."

Sylvain Guintoli - 17th, 1:50.133:

"I'm not sure what to say really, except that I have been learning the track OK and the afternoon felt a lot better than the morning. I know that doesn't seem much: when you consider I ended-up 17th today, but this track is very technical and it is difficult to knock off those last fractions of a second which are so important. I think the track is good and I like it very much. I know there's quite a bit more to come from me and tomorrow we'll work on improving the balance of the bike and finding a good set-up. I had some brake problems today - inconsistency - and that's another area we will have to sort out tomorrow."


Saturday WSBK qualifying:

1 Smrz (CZE-Ducati) 1:48.517, 2 Fabrizio (ITA-Ducati) 1:48.670, 3 Crutchlow (GBR-Yamaha) 1:48.682, 4 Leon Haslam (GBR-Suzuki Alstare) 1:48.734, 5 Checa (ESP-Ducati) 1:48.742, 6 Byrne (GBR-Ducati) 1:48.853. 17 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA-Suzuki Alstare) 1:50.133.