British Honda rider Jonathan Rea had the fastest time in Friday's opening qualifying for the first round of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island.
The past four months of training in Australia paid off as Rea posted a lap of 1min 31.959sec at the end of the 45-minute session to upstage Ducati's Czech rider Jakub Smrz by just 0.157 seconds.
Italian Davide Giugliano was the surprise in third place on the provisional grid ahead of Ducati team-mate and defending world champion Carlos Checa.
The 39-year-old Spaniard, who will be chasing his fourth straight win at Philip Island on Sunday, fell after running off the circuit at turn 10 but escaped injury.
Other riders to fall during the session included internationals Joan Lascorz, Maxime Berger, Eugene Laverty and Australia's Josh Brookes.
Best of the Australians was Bryan Staring, 14th fastest on his Kawasaki, followed by Suzuki's Brookes at 20th and BMW pair Mark Aitchison and David Johnson 23rd and 24th, respectively.
There was better news for home riders in the Supersport category with Newcastle's Broc Parkes putting his Honda on provisional pole position for Sunday's 21-lap support race.
Just 0.275 seconds separated the top five riders.
Parkes has returned to the same Dutch team he rode for in 2004, when he finished second in the championship behind compatriot Karl Muggeridge.
"Considering I had a late start to the season, I couldn't be happier with how things are going," said Parkes.
"And what's even more pleasing is that I've really just been concentrating on trying to do long runs and working on tyre set-up, but the times are still coming. That's given me a lot of confidence."
Australia's second rider, Jed Metcher, finished 24th as he continues to iron out some of the bugs in a Yamaha he is riding for the first time this weekend.
Final qualifying for both categories will be held on Saturday.
