Superpole one
Tom Sykes 1'56.339
Eugene Laverty 1'56.638
Chaz Davies 1'56.845
Kawasaki's Tom Sykes assumed his usual position at the end of Superpole, taking top spot and denying Eugene Laverty his debut World Superbike pole position at Motorland Aragon this afternoon.
The Aprilia man had set an astonishing 1'56.638 with his second lap and looked to have secured his first ever pole but Sykes had other ideas, swiping it from under the Irishman's nose and re-writing the circuit best lap in the process.
Laverty looked like he might have enough pace to try again but got caught up behind Sykes' team-mate Loris Baz, who made a mess of his braking off the back straight and held Laverty up.
BMW's Chaz Davies crossed the line with just a second to go to start his last flyer, with Sykes right behind him but passing the finish line after the flag had dropped. Davies was on a fast lap but also got it wrong coming off the back straight. His earlier lap was enough for third and the final spot on the front row and his first front-row start.
Sylvain Guintoli bagged fourth and heads the second row with Jules Cluzel and Baz next to him while Davide Guigliano, Melandri and Jonathan Rea, who aborted two fast laps, in ninth.
Superpole two
Eugene Laverty 1'56.631
Loris Baz 1'57.247
Chaz Davies 1'57.431
Laverty dominated the session and set the fastest time of the weekend so far, eight-tenths faster than Baz on the Kawasaki who go a tow from third-placed man Davies, using a qualifier to get himself into second.
At the bottom end of the table, a struggling Leon Haslam couldn't find the pace on his final lap to make it through to the final session after losing the whole of this morning's second qualifying following a crash.
He was joined by Alstare Ducati's Carlos Checa, who also struggled on his last lap. Melandri just squeezed through to third session by virtue of only 15 riders taking part in Superpole.
ELIMINATED
Carlos Checa
Leon Haslam
Max Neukirchner
Superpole one
Tom Sykes 1'57.504
Eugene Laverty 1'57.797
Jules Cluzel 1'57.987
Sykes took just one lap to race to the top of the first session timesheets, toppling Laverty by a little less than three-tenths of a second while Cluzel hopped into third on his final lap of the period using a qualifier.
Neukirchner's last lap was enough to take him into safety, hopping up to tenth place, which forced Haslam down to the drop zone and Checa, who crashed in a pre-event karting race and may be carrying an injury, down to 12th but he went through to the second session as did Haslam, whose last lap saw him go into ninth as Neukirchner slid to a safe 11th.
ELIMINATED
Ayrton Badovini
Michel Fabrizio
Alexander Lundh
