The opening day of action at the Autodromo di Monza belonged to Britain's Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda), who confirmed his excellent qualifying form this year with provisional pole position, after topping the timesheets also in the morning's free practice run. The World Supersport champion set a time of 1 minute 44.577 seconds to go two-tenths faster than Assen double winner Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), while third quickest time went to Michel Fabrizio on the Ducati Xerox 1098, who looked to be in fine form after his recent Misano test.


The BMW Motorrad team continued to make headway in qualifying with first Ruben Xaus and then Troy Corser both lying at the top of the timesheets for a while. In the end the Australian set the fourth time, ahead of points leader Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare) . Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia), who had set an astonishing record top speed of close to 327 km/h in FP1, finished seventh, while Jakub Smrz with the PATA client Ducati ended up in eighth. The last two top 10 positions went to James Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda) in ninth and Luca Scassa (Supersonic Ducati), who on the damp track had been as high as third.

Yoshimura WSB debut rider Daisaku Sakai had a tough baptism with the Monza track, earning himself a provisional nineteenth place together with a morning and an afternoon crash.


1 35 Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1'44.577
2 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1'44.789
3 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'45.134
4 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1'45.234
5 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'45.303
6 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1'45.542
7 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'45.592
8 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1'45.603
9 52 Toseland J. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1'46.019
10 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'46.111
11 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'46.170
12 2 Camier L. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'46.216
13 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Honda CBR1000RR 1'46.402
14 57 Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'46.413
15 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1'46.451
16 50 Guintoli S. (FRA) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'46.588
17 7 Checa C. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1'46.756
18 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1'47.466
19 71 Sakai D. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'47.922
20 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'48.041
21 77 Vermeulen C. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'48.191
22 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Honda CBR1000RR 1'48.254
23 95 Hayden R. (USA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'49.217
24 31 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1'49.958