Kawasaki's Tom Sykes has said he hopes this third World Superbike pole position in a row will make injured team-mate Joan Lascorz smile from his Barcelona hospital bed.

The Huddersfield rider has secured every available pole of the year so far and was more than a second ahead of second-placed man Jonathan Rea while reigning champion Carlos Checa was off the front row for the first time this season.

“It is a fantastic feeling and firstly I want to thank the Kawasaki Racing Team because they have done a great job. They have given me the correct package to let me win Superpole three times in a row, so hopefully we can make it last. On my last qualifying tyre today I had to dig deep because I saw I had some pressure from Jonathan Rea," said Sykes.

"When I crossed the line I was one second up and was very happy to have been that fast, because I thought I had improved only two or three tenths. For tomorrow I hope we can convert it - third time lucky. Obviously we had some bad news from the Imola tests so hopefully this is something for Joan to smile about and hopefully we can give him something to smile about tomorrow. I am looking forward to the race. Like my rivals have said already it is going to be tricky because of the expected weather conditions but it should be very exciting.”