After securing a stunning podium finish five days ago at Imola, Max Biaggi had an eventful day trying to get the Aprilia RSV4 on the pace at Magny Cours. The Italian veteran ended the day in tenth place with a late charge up the leader board following a crash 39 minutes into the session. Biaggi hit factory Yamaha man, Tom Sykes, at the first-gear Adelaide Hairpin, but escaped relatively unhurt.

“Sykes ran into the back of me, I have some bruising on my thumb but it’s ok – no problem,” said Biaggi. "Right now I feel that we need to improve the set-up and make the bike more rideable. Without any data for this track it’s going to take a few hours, but hopefully we will have a good rhythm by the end.

“The difference between here and Imola is the test. Having two days at Imola in July gave us the opportunity to understand and then go away and think about it. For sure we are not at the same level here because everything is new. I need to feel more comfortable, especially with the rear because I am getting a lot of sliding on the exit of the corners. Through some of the fast corners the rear is coming around so quick and I am not even 50% throttle and we need to understand why and work on the suspension and electronics.”

Biaggi’s stand in teammate, Leon Camier, made a solid debut with the newly crowned 2009 British Superbike champion ending the day in 17th place 1.33 seconds off pole.

Crash

Ryuichi Kiyonari was another high-profile crasher when he went from front runner to the gravel trap onboard his Ten Kate Honda 28 minutes in to the opening Free Practice session. At one point the Honda rider was running as high as third. Kiyonari was taken to the medical center for examination, but was later declared fit to race having been diagnosed with a badly bruised shoulder. The Japanese rider who is fighting for a ride in WSB next year ended first qualifying down in 16th place, 1.331 seconds off provisional pole.

In Supersport, championship leader Cal Crutchlow had another high-speed get off on his Yamaha R6. The 23-year-old Brit is still nursing injuries from a 172 kph (107 mph) crash at Imola last weekend and as a result ended the session in an uncharacteristic ninth place.

Kenan Sofuoglu and Joan Lascorz finished first and second but, like Crutchlow, crashed in the opening Free Practice session.


Rea Aiming to Make Amends for Imola Disappointment

Jonathan Rea made his intention perfectly clear during the opening day at Magny Cours after running at the front of the timesheets before ultimately being denied pole by Imola race winner Michel Fabrizio. In qualifying Rea set the fastest time of the day on his first lap and then subsequently bettered it for the next four circulations. Explaining the reason for his early pace he said:

“The bike feels good. I got on the pipe straight away because Leon (Haslam) was trying to follow me so I wanted to break him straightaway.”

Despite running at the front, the 22-year-old Ten Kate Honda rider is adamant there is more to come after revealing he’s losing time at the horseshoe left-hand corner midway through the lap.

He said: “I’m still struggling in sector two, basically it’s the approach to turn six and I can’t get in from the moment I release the brake. I don’t want to make a big change to the bike and compromise my set up for the other two sectors and unfortunately neither of my teammates are going fast enough for me to be able to overlay their data to see what’s going on. I’ve done some good times on old tires so it’s not so bad, now I just need to sit down with the boys tonight and see what improvements we can make.”