Superpole three

Tom Sykes 1'36.950

Eugene Laverty 1'37.516

Kawasaki's Tom Sykes went 1.4s faster than he had done all weekend to blitz Jonathan Rea's Magny-Cours circuit-best record of 1'37.490 and take the final World Superbike pole position of the year by half a second from Carlos Checa's Althea Ducati.

Sykes is the only man to break the 1'37s barrier while Checa mustered a 1'37.442. Aprilia's Eugene Laverty looked like he could pass the Spanish reigning champion but a small mistake in the final sector saw him drop into third place with still-injured Marco Melandri rounding out the first row.

Pata Ducati's Sylvain Guintoli bagged the head of row two with a solid lap with Jonathan Rea next to him. Leon Haslam is clearly suffering with his injured right hand, running wide on the brakes on his last fast lap and settling for seventh while Chaz Davies took eighth on his final ride on the Aprilia before he replaces Haslam at BMW.

Superpole two

Tom Sykes 1'37.494

Eugene Laverty 1'37.676

Both Sykes and Melandri broke into massive grins as series leader Max Biaggi entirely failed to make it through to the final qualifying session. The Roman Emperor could only muster a lap good enough for tenth place and will start tomorrow on the third row of the grid. It looks like he had done just enough by halfway around his last lap but his time went away in the final two sectors.

All of which was good news for Rea who was sitting on the edge of the drop zone and a time from Biaggi would have seen him go down to ninth and out. The Irishman was on a lap himself but it just wasn't fast enough to go through on its own merit. Leon Camier, who signed a new contract for Fixi Suzuki this morning, just couldn't find the pace to gain promotion and finished ninth.

ELIMINATED

Leon Camier

Max Biaggi

Michel Fabrizio

Claudio Corti

Superpole one

Max Biaggi 1'37.790

Carlos Checa 1'37.945

Laverty used the first of his qualifiers to ensure his progression into the second session, putting his Aprilia in third place but Rea, doing exactly the same after trying to make it through with just a race tyre and going second fastest behind world champion-elect Biaggi.

Chaz Davies was still in pitlane with six minutes of the session left but rocketed from outside the top ten to fourth place, then slipping back to eighth. The Welshman crashed this morning when he found he had no brakes going into the final chicane and had to stand on the rear anchor which ended up with him being spat off, fortunately unhurt.

Guintoli was the man in danger of not making it through and looked to be under threat from Davide Guigilano on his final lap but the Althea Ducati-Italian just couldn't find the pace to make it into the top ten and joined Kawasaki's Loris Baz in the drop zone. Fabrizio had to put in a late, fast one to ensure promotion.

ELIMINATED

Loris Baz

Maxime Berger

Davide Guigliano

Lorenzo Zanetti

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