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In the cooler conditions of the morning's free practice session (25°/35°C), the quickest time was set by Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) in 1'32"752. The afternoon session saw the Suzukis move to the front, while Spies finished in eighth place, behind Shinya Nakano, making his WSB debut for Aprilia, and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox). Max Biaggi's eleventh place doesn't reflect the true potential of the Italian rider as his time was set on used tyres to simulate a race distance.

As well as the return of Aprilia after seven years, today saw the first day of true championship activity for BMW in its debut season in Superbike. The German manufacturer finished the day in sixteenth position with Troy Corser and in twentieth with Ruben Xaus, but with the Australian just over a second off the pace of the provisional polesitter, the result is encouraging.

Today's first qualifying session saw the top 14 riders separated by just under a second, with less than two between Smrz and Tommy Hill (Honda Althea), twenty-first on the provisional grid.

The first fallers of the new season were David Salom (Kawasaki Pedercini) and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda) in the morning session, with Luca Scassa (Kawasaki Pedercini), Corser and Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) all going down in qualifying, but without any serious consequences.