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Top ten for Smith on opening day at Imola

Pata Honda rider Kyle Smith still has some work to do in order qualify in a good grid position for Sunday's fifth round World Supersport championship race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari at Imola in Italy.

The 23-year-old British rider set the ninth fastest combined time after today's two free practice sessions at the 4.936km circuit which lies 45km from the northern Italian city of Bologna.

This is Smith's first visit to the Imola circuit on the World Supersport specification Honda CBR600RR but he is confident of improvement in tomorrow's third free practice session before final qualifying in the afternoon.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith - P9, 1m 53.165s
We've been struggling a little today because I can't quite get to grips with the circuit here and getting the bike to work. It's similar to the feeling I had on day one at Aragon actually, so we've been through some changes today and it's definitely feeling better. The only problem is that, even though the lap times have dropped, I'm not much closer to the guys at the front. We'll sit down with the data technician tonight and go through everything. I'm suffering the same problem in every corner - a lack of confidence in the front - so if we can get that sorted, we'll be flying!

Pieter Breddels Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
To be honest it hasn't been an easy day and this morning we couldn't find a good direction with the setting. At the same time, Kyle couldn't really catch a good rhythm, so that lost us some time. We found something of a direction this afternoon and ended up with P9, but we were really aiming for top five today. Kyle is still not completely satisfied with the setting on the bike yet so we have some more work to improve the setting for tomorrow.

Free Practice Results
1 Jules Cluzel 1m51.552s FRA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
2 Kenan Sofuoglu 1m52.601s TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
3 Marco Faccani 1m52.071s ITA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
4 Patrick Jacobson 1m52.116s USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
5 Lorenzo Zanetti 1m52.247s ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
6 Ratthapark Wilairot 1m52.477s THA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand
7 Alex Baldolini 1m52.541s ITA MV Race Department ATK#25
8 Gino Rea 1m52.543s GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda
9 Kyle Smith 1m53.165s GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
10 Roberto Rolfo 1m53.414s ITA HONDA Team Lorini