TROY Corser took provisional pole position for the sixth round of the World Superbike championship at Misano in Italy during Friday afternoon's opening qualifying session.

The series leader was marginally quicker than Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight during the opening one-hour session for Sunday's San Marino round with both riders inside the existing lap record.

"I went out for my fast lap but was held up by a slower rider so I pushed the soft compound tyre for one more lap than it should have gone and it worked well," said Slight, currently second in the championship and a race winner at the previous round in Germany.

Ducatis completed the provisional front row with Pier-Francesco Chili third and Carl Fogarty fourth.

Last year's Misano pole position man Akira Yanagawa was fifth quickest ahead of Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards with Scott Russell seventh and his Yamaha team-mate Noriyuki Haga rounding out the provisional second row.

British Suzuki rider Jamie Whitham and Italian Piergiorgio Bontempi on a Kawasaki complete the provisional top 10.

Friday's qualifying times: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 33.941s, 2 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 34.187s, 3 Pier-Francesco

Chili, Italy (Ducati) 1m 34.583s, 4 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 35.037s, 5 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 35.160s, 6 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 35.342s, 7 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 1m 35.498s, 8 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 35.822s, 9 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 1m 36.032s, 10 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Kawasaki) 1m 36.140s.

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