Parkes in the top four as Harris goes fifth fastest

Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) will make a start from the first row for Sunday's Brands Hatch World Supersport race after finishing fourth fastest in combined qualifying.

His team-mate for the Brands Hatch round, Karl Harris, was a superb fifth in his first WSS race for the team, and has also found what he thinks will be a good set-up for the 23-lap race on Sunday. He was only 0.020 seconds from Parkes today in terms of his best qualifying lap, and only 0.2 seconds from pole.

Parkes was finally unable to go for his sixth pole in a row after the British weather caused light showers to fall on and off during the final qualifying session today. Despite this he is confident that the team have found a strong set-up for raceday as he goes for his second 2008 season race win.

Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) ended up tenth on the grid after only marginally improving his first day time on a track surface which was difficult for even the local riders to read.

David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) moved up to 18th place on his R6, and will start the race from row five.

"Overall that was pretty good but we didn't have a good clean run in the final session. We went out at the start and it was drizzling rain a little bit, then I put in a bit of a lap time, and then came in. Maybe I should have gone out again right away but we waited to see what would happen. Later in the session when I went out again the rain came back but the bike feels good and we made a lot of progress in the race setting. We did our best lap on our fourth or fifth lap on the same tyre and that is usually a good sign."

"Top five is OK. I was actually up on the first two splits but then on the last part of the lap it started spitting with rain. I didn't feel I was holding off even then but I just wasn't doing my usual 100% commitment. But I am happy with fifth, especially as it was a bit of a nightmare in that session, with the weather changing every five minutes. We are making changes on the bike and we are going faster because of them, so I am very happy with the bike and the team. We'll see how we go tomorrow."

Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team)

"The team worked hard on the data overnight to find solutions for Broc's set-up today, we worked hard and found a race setting we were happy with. For Karl it was less complicated. Both riders improved their times and are very close to pole so we have to be satisfied with that. For the first time in five races we don't have pole but we are OK because all those poles did not bring us any wins. But we are ready for anything on Sunday and Broc being on the front row is important. If it is wet tomorrow it will be the same for everyone so we'll wait and see. I don't think anybody wants to have rain here. But for sure we have to ride, wet or dry - it's not optional!"

"It was a pity that it started to rain when it did. I had just put in a new tyre and after two laps it started to rain. I had been able to improve my best time from yesterday anyway, and I know I can have a good pace tomorrow in the race."

1 Matthieu Lagrive FRA 1'28.511 1'28.003

2 Jonathan Rea GBR 1'28.117 1'28.274

3 Craig Jones GBR 1'28.340 1'28.171

4 Broc Parkes AUS 1'28.409 1'28.201

5 Karl Harris GBR 1'28.886 1'28.221

6 Joshua Brookes AUS 1'29.441 1'28.390

7 Robbin Harms DNK 1'28.952 1'28.459

8 Barry Veneman NED 1'28.875 1'28.498

9 Andrew Pitt AUS 1'29.087 1'28.519

10 Massimo Roccoli ITA 1'28.780 1'28.747

11 Steve Plater GBR 1'29.730 1'28.950

12 Hudson Kennaugh RSA 1'29.025 1'29.147

13 Joan Lascorz ESP 1'29.281 1'29.056

14 Gianluca Vizziello ITA 1'29.157 1'29.090

15 Mark Aitchinson AUS 1'29.157 1'29.530

18 David Salom ESP 1'30.202 1'29.433

- Yamaha Racing -