Factory Aprilia rider Max Biaggi has claimed the World Superbike provisional pole position at Brno this afternoon with a last-ditch lap which saw him as the only rider to dip underneath a two-minute lap.

The self-styled Roman Emperor set his 1'59.982s lap as the chequered flag came out to end the session and he deposed Xerox Ducati man Michel Fabrizio who has just gone quicker than Ten Kate Honda's Carlos Checa. Thew last lap times by Sterilgarda Yamaha's Ben Spies and Kawasaki's Makoto Tamada, which was good enough for fourth, were chucked out as they didn't make it to the flag in time.
In a reasonably drama-free session, Fabrizio set a fastest time of 2'00.358 early in the session which was to remain quickest until Checa did a 2'00.336 with three minutes to go.

The the floodgates opened as Biaggi went third fastest, DFX Ducati's Lorenzo Lanzi popped into the top five and Fabrizio then set the quickest time of a 2'00.066.

Checa then upped his game with a 2'00.205 and it looked like he had made second his own until Biaggi's last flier put him at the top of the timesheets and into provisional pole, pushing Checa into third.
Sterilgarda Ducati's Shane Byrne was the quickest British rider in 11th place on 2'01.017 with Jonathan Rea two places behind him. Tom Sykes, who suffered a breakdown in the first ten minutes, is in 16th while Leon Haslam is suffering down in 18th, some 1.4s off the pace.

Both John Hopkins and Yukio Kagayama walked away from crashes in the latter part of the hour.
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