A final flying lap by Factory Aprilia's Eugene Laverty was just enough to take top spot in the first World Superbike qualifying session at Motorland Aragon which was stopped after ten minutes when Leon Camier had a big crash.
The Fixi Suzuki man came off through the fast left-hander of turn ten on his fourth lap and was taken to the medical centre. He has a big cut on his knee and is going to hospital to have it cleaned and stitched. His previous lap was enough for him to secure seventh position on the timesheets.
Laverty, meanwhile, took until the very last gasp of the session to demote Davies with a 1'58.548 compared to the Welshman's 1'58.652 while Kawasaki's Tom Sykes completed the provisional front row on a 1'58.887, set on the half-hour.
“We worked quite a bit on the electronics today because I wasn't satisfied with them during free practice this morning, especially going into turns. There is still room for improvement but we're moving in the right direction and our times show it," said Laverty.
"We just need to make it easier to maintain the pace for more laps in view of the race. Tomorrow we'll see what happens, the track will probably have better grip so we'll adapt our setting in order to be ready Sunday."
Marco Melandri, on the sister BMW to Davies, spent most of the session in and around the front row but was knocked back to fourth by Laverty after sitting in third. Pata Honda's Jonathan Rea also put in a last effort to take fourth place on a 1'59.090.
Sylvain Guintoli is winning the top speed war at Aragon, clocking 204mph, but he was only able to muster sixth place, just ahead of Camier. The Kent man's team-mate Jules Cluzel is in eighth ahead of fellow Frenchman Loris Baz in ninth with Davide Guigliano in tenth.
Leon Haslam, on the second Pata bike, had been lapping at the same pace as his team-mate but Rea found some extra pace in the dying minutes, leaving Haslam down in 11th, one place ahead of Carlos Checa who is struggling, relativelt, for top speed at 191 mph.