Championship leader Kevin Curtain ended today's first practice in third position, despite suffering a crash at a cold and grey Magny Cours circuit. The Australian crashed at Adelaide corner on his seventh lap of the afternoon qualifying session but, despite completing just a handful of laps, Curtain remained one of only three riders to break the 1:44 bracket.
Curtain was one of many riders to be caught out by the low surface temperatures, which saw many of the supersport riders crash out, thankfully without injury.
Curtain's team-mate Broc Parkes ended the day sixth on the other Yamaha Motor Germany YZF-R6. The Australian is still riding in some discomfort following his big crash in Assen last month and rode with a safety first attitude around the circuit where he scored his maiden world supersport victory 12 months ago.
Yamaha GMT94's David Checa took a provisional seventh place at his team's home race. The Spaniard knows the Magny Cours circuit well from his many outings in the Bol d'Or 24-hour race, which is held at the circuit each September.
Yamaha Team Italia's Gianluca Vizziello and Massimo Roccoli ended the day on the provisional third row, in 10th and 11th positions respectively.
Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) took provisional pole position, just ahead of his team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu, with Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda) completing the front row with Curtain.
Circuit Length: 4411
Weather: Dry
Qualifying 1 - Magny Cours 06/10/2006 :1 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'42.829
2 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'43.097
3 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'43.765
4 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'44.032
5 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'44.170
6 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'44.273
7 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'44.277
8 Johan Stigefelt Honda SWE 1'44.367
9 Stephane Chambon Kawasaki FRA 1'44.371
10 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'44.452
11 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'44.741
12 Simone Sanna Honda ITA 1'44.869
13 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 1'45.044
14 Kai Borre Andersen Suzuki NOR 1'45.081
15 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'45.147
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