THE Blackburn bullet Carl Fogarty forced his way on to the front row of the grid after the first qualifying session of round four of the World Superbike championship at Albacete.

Fogarty, though, had to settle for fourth fastest time after a session held in strong winds and soaring temperatures.

Spain's Gregorio Lavilla set the fastest time. The Kawasaki rider gave his home fans plenty to cheer about as he relegated team-mate Akira Yanagawa to second place.

Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards ended the session in third place after being quickest in the free practice session earlier in the day.

Fogarty was quite pleased with his day's work.

"I didn't feel any effects from the strong winds and I'm concentrating on the choice of right rear tyre," he said.

"On this track it is important to get the handling right and I am trying to find a set-up that allows me to keep the bike in a perfect line coming out of the curves."

Rival Edwards said: "We made a few changes to the machine for the session.

"Right now I'm getting the balance about right so I can't complain."

Suzuki's Katsuaki Fujiwara and Pier-Francesco Chili finished in fifth and sixth places respectively with Troy Corser seventh. Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight ended the one-hour session, held in 33-degree heat, in eighth place. The gritty New Zealander bravely battled against the pain from a badly broken finger on his right hand, suffered in a crash at Donington Park two weeks ago.

"The injury means I'm having to ride the machine a lot differently," said Slight. "My style's changed because of the injury and I'm losing too much time as the injury is restricting my use of the throttle and brake."

Noriyuki Haga - winner of five races last year - was ninth quickest with Aprilia's Peter Goddard 10th, in his first year with the Italian factory.

World Superbike championship qualifying: 1 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 1m 31.838s, 2 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 31.886s, 3 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 32.484s, 4 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 32.561s, 5 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 32.643s, 6 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 1m 32.720s, 7 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 32.766s, 8 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 33.177s, 9 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 33.184s, 10 Peter Goddard,Australia (Aprilia) 1m 33.343s.

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