Andrews on top form in practice.

SIMON Andrews maintained his recent run of good form by outpacing Leon Camier, the leader of the British Superbike Championship, in free practice ahead of the fifth round at Snetterton.

MSS Colchester Kawasaki rider Andrews put in a best time of one minute 05.888 seconds, an average speed of 106.65mph, around the 1.952-mile Norfolk circuit.

Andrews said: "The bike and me are now talking the same language and it feels right to be at the pointy end to be honest." Camier, who put in only half the laps of Andrews in a hectic session, closed within 0.002secs. Camier said: "We had a couple of minor problems but nothing to be concerned about, and we are working on the settings.

"These races come at a busy time, with a wild-card ride in World Superbikes and then the trip to Knockhill in the next two weeks." Camier has won six of the eight races so far to be 38 points clear of his Airwaves Yamaha team-mate James Ellison who had to settle for 10th place on the leaderboard though only 0.381secs down on Andrews.

In between them, Karl Harris and Stuart Easton were third and fourth for Hydrex Honda, marginally faster than the twin Australian challengers Josh Brookes and Glen Richards on their HM Plant Hondas.

Frenchman Julien da Costa clocked a lap of 1:06.204 to put the second MSS Colchester bike into seventh place, running 0.003secs up on Michael Rutter, who was making the most of his second outing on the Worx Crescent Suzuki.

Rutter was just ahead of Ian Lowry on a similar bike running in Relentless colours.

DUCATI Xerox's Michel Fabrizio topped the timesheets at the end of the first qualifying session for tomorrow's FIM Superbike World Championship races at Misano.

Italian rider Fabrizio was on the pace all day at the San Marino circuit, finishing second to title rival Ben Spies (Yamaha) in the morning's free practice session.

He trailed the American for much of the afternoon session but leapt to the top of the order with just two minutes remaining as times tumbled across the board.

Fabrizio's best lap of one minute 37.016 seconds was over a second faster than he managed this morning, although WSB rookie Spies improved by a similar margin to finish less than a tenth behind the provisional pole-sitter.

Such was the competitive nature of the session, there was less than a covering the top 19 runners when the chequered flag fell.

Yukio Kagayama impressed with third place for Alstare Suzuki, the Japanese rider finishing within quarter of a second of Fabrizio, who sits third in the riders' championship, 64 points behind team-mate and title leader Noriyuki Haga..