Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) led the way in qualifying at a cold and wet Donington Park circuit as a group of British Superbike wild-card riders made a good impression on the first day of action.

The 39 year-old Australian, who has never actually won at the Leicestershire track, clocked a time of 1 minute 44.377 seconds to hold the overnight pole from Brands Hatch winner Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda).

The Japanese rider, British champion for the last two years, was one-tenth behind Bayliss in second but a fraction ahead of a trio of current BSB riders headed by Cal Crutchlow (HM Plant Honda), Tom Sykes (Rizla Suzuki) and Leon Haslam (HM Plant Honda).

The Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati pairing of Italian Max Biaggi and Ruben Xaus were next up in sixth and seventh, with two more Spanish riders Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Gregorio Lavilla (VentAxia Honda) filling the next two places, while another Brit James Ellison (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) completed the top 10.

So far failing to make their mark are the Yamaha Motor Italia pairing of Troy Corser, who crashed twice in the morning free practice session and is in 12th, and Noriyuki Haga, down in 24th position, while the other championship contender Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) could only manage 23rd.

Today's appalling weather conditions produced a total of 19 crashes involving 13 riders.

FIM Supersport World Championship

Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) dominated today's first Supersport qualifying session at his home circuit.

The Northern Ireland rider set a quickest time of 1 minute 47.714 seconds to confirm his current run of race-winning form and become the rider to beat this weekend. Rea was four-tenths quicker than Joshua Brookes (Hannspree Stiggy Motorsport Honda) of Australia while Italian Ivan Clementi (Triumph BE1 Racing) was the surprise of the day in third place.

The provisional front row was made up of Matthieu Lagrive (Intermoto Czech Honda), ahead of Joan Lascorz (Glanermotocard.com Honda) and the best Suzuki of Barry Veneman (RES Software) on row 2.

Championship leader Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) could only manage seventh place, ahead of Eugene Laverty of Ireland, standing in for the injured Fabien Foret in the Yamaha World Supersport team.

Championship contender Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport) was in difficulty today, crashing in the morning free practice session and ending the day with 29th quickest time.

© CAPSIS International