CARL Fogarty's arch-rival John Kocinski grabbed provisional pole position for round 10 of the World Superbike Championship at Albacete in Spain with a blistering lap in the opening one-hour qualifying session.

The American championship leader was in eighth place as the chequered flag went out to end the session before the 750cc Honda rider put in his fastest time around the 2.2-mile track to move to the top of the leaderboard.

Blackburn's Foggy - just two points behind Kocinski with three rounds remaining - bounced back from machine trouble to end the session in fifth place ahead of Yamaha's Scott Russell.

Burnley's Ducati rider Neil Hodgson and Japan's Akira Yanagawa make up row two.

"It was so hot out there that I didn't think there was a better time to come but the team sent me out on with a bike setting to try and some fresh tyres and it did the trick," said Kocinski.

A surprise second place was Italian Piergiorgio Bontempi on a Kawasaki, ahead of Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight who held pole position for much of the session. "I was trying a few settings out and looking for a good compound rear Michelin," said Slight. "It's nice to be on the provisional front row but it's qualifying tomorrow afternoon and then Sunday's two races that count."

Kawasaki's Simon Crafar completes the provisional front row.

Pier-Francesco Chili briefly held pole position in the session before ending Friday in ninth place with Spain's Gregorio Lavilla completing the top 10.

Friday qualifying times: 1 John Kocinski, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 31.978s, 2 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Kawasaki) 1m 32.052s, 3 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 32.474s, 4 Simon Crafar, New Zealand (Kawasaki) 1m 32.488s, 5 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 32.510s, 6 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 1m 32.522s, 7 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 1m 32.524s, 8 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 32.540s, 9 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 1m 32.796s, 10 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Ducati) 1m 33.208s.

Championship points after nine of 12 rounds: 1 John Kocinski, USA (Castrol Honda) 314 points, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 312, 3 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 249, 4 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 190, 5 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 183, 6 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) and Simon Crafar, New Zealand (Kawasaki) 162, 8 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 118, 9 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 116, 10 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Kawasaki) 97.

Remaining rounds: Albacete, Spain - September 21; Sugo, Japan - October 5;Sentul, Indonesia - October 12.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.