2005 World Superbike championship, round six - Misano, Italy
Qualifying practice - 24 June 2005

PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW FOR MUGGERIDGE

Karl Muggeridge set the second fastest time in this afternoon's opening
qualifying session for Sunday's World Superbike championship sixth round at
Misano, Italy. In hot conditions, Troy Corser took provisional pole position,
despite crashing out unhurt towards the end of the hour-long session.

Muggeridge's Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Chris Vermeulen, was fourteenth
fastest, concentrating on fine-tuning the race set-up of his Honda CBR1000RR
rather than opting for a quick lap on a qualifying tyre.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"Karl is doing well here - making small but steady improvements to his set-up.
With the track temperature at around 50 degrees, the level of grip is very low
for everyone so every little bit extra we can find is important. The changes
we've made to the rear of the bike after our test at Magny-Course were confirmed
in back-to-back tests this morning on the bumpier Misano track. Now we've found
that improvement, it's easier to see where else we need to improve things. Chris
didn't use a qualifier today but with the consistent hot weather here, there
should be no problem for him to be up at the front after tomorrow's sessions."

Karl Muggeridge - fourth fastest, 1m36.170s

"The bike is so much easier to work with now and I'm able to give much more
accurate and useful information to the guys back in the garage. We're not there
yet but we have a good idea that we think will work tomorrow. It's nothing big
but, because the track is so slippery everywhere, a little change can make a big
difference. It's really a question of finding the best balance between the front
and the rear. More grip at the back makes it harder to turn but if we can find
maybe four tenths, we'll be in a good position. And four tenths is only like
half a sneeze per corner so I'm pretty confident we can find it."

Chris Vermeulen - fourteenth fastest, 1m37.223s

"We tried a lot of different tyres and combinations today, trying to find that
grip that everyone is after. The track was really hot this afternoon, which
makes it really slippery so we're just after a combination of grip and
durability, because 25 laps out there on Sunday is going to be really hard on
the tyres. The ones we tried today all have advantages and disadvantages so
we'll try to nail the choice tomorrow and concentrate on that. I'm pretty
comfortable even though I'm fourteenth at the moment, and at least I have a
couple of qualifiers to use tomorrow that the others don't have."

World Superbike, Misano - provisional qualifying times:

 1 Troy Corser AUS (Suzuki)                      1m35.717s
 2 Max Neukirchner GER (Honda)                   1:35.836
 3 Regis Laconi FRA (Ducati)                     1:36.012
 4 Karl Muggeridge AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  1:36.170
 5 James Toseland GBR (Ducati)                   1:36.384
 6 Pierfrancesco Chili ITA (Honda)               1:36.492
 7 Yukio Kagayama JPN (Suzuki)                   1:36.652
 8 Lorenzo Alfonsi ITA (Yamaha)                  1:36.957
 9 Ivan Clementi ITA (Ducati)                    1:36.990
10 Steve Martin AUS (Petronas)                   1:37.106
14 Chris Vermeulen AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  1:37.223