Stefano Manzi and Ten Kate Racing need to start to claw in points to fight for the Championship and a strong Free Practice One session might have put them in a good position to do so.

World Supersport has seen the same two names running towards the front throughout this season and once again they have found themselves in the top three after Free Practice One.

Stefano Manzi ended Friday mornings Practice session as the fastest rider on track. The Italian finished 0.015 seconds ahead of the top Ducati rider, Yari Montella.

The World Supersport Championship leader, Nicolo Bulega, finished FP1 in third place. But he was 0.283 seconds behind his title rival, Manzi. The Italian will most likely close that gap as the weekend goes on.

Federico Caricasulo rounds out an all Italian top four in the opening Supersport session of the weekend. The Althea Racing Ducati rider finished the session in fourth and has put the Italians in a good position to lockout the podium positions this weekend.

The first British rider was in fifth place as Tom Booth-Amos put his Kawasaki inside the top five. The 27-year-old rider was only 0.352 seconds behind top spot so is looking strong at his home round.

Lucas Mahias continues to stand in for Can Oncu for the Puccetti Racing squad and finished sixth overall in FP1 at Donington Park. The French rider is a veteran in Supersport and looks strong so far.

Adrian Huertas continues the Kawasaki run as he finished FP1 in seventh place. The MTM Racing rider is not far off the pace or far behind his old World Supersport 300 rival, Booth-Amos.

The Orelac Racing Ducati bike was in eighth place at the end of Friday morning as Raffaele de Rosa had a strong showing at a track where he got a surprise podium last year.

The top Triumph is down in ninth place after FP1 at its home event. Finnish rider Niki Tuuli was 0.803 seconds off of the pace and has work to do to catch the top guys at Donington Park.

Valentin Debise was the second highest Yamaha in FP1 as he finished down in tenth place. the R6 clearly is not the bike to be on so far this weekend.

The Irish British Supersport duo of Rhys Irwin and Eugene McManus are wild carding this weekend at Donington Park. Irwin finished FP1 in 18th place on his Suzuki and McManus was just behind in 19th place on his Triumph.

The remaining British World Supersport of John McPhee, Tarran Mackenzie and Harry Truelove ended their opening session at home down in 24th, 25th and 26th.