Althea Ducati's Carlos Checa has claimed provisional pole position for Sunday's World Superbike double header at Brno this afternoon and is only a tenth off lap record pace at the Czech Republic circuit.
Checa found a second and a half in pace over lunch to lap at 1'59.322 in the first qualifying session which was enough to depose the Liberty Ducati of Jakub Smrz, continuing his form this morning, who finished in second place, neqrly three-tenths in arrears.
The works Yamaha pairing of Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty, who must be making his secret anti-wheelie setting work, rounded out the front row with the Irishman a little over half a second off the pace but considerably quicker than his time from earlier.
Reigning world champion Max Biaggi used his last run to haul himself into fifth place while a final flyer from PBM Kawasaki's Tom Sykes saw him net sixth which demoted former BSB colleague Leon Haslam to seventh and Michel Fabrizio's Alstare Suzuki to the outside of row two.
The second Liberty bike of Sylvain Guintoli is ninth, Ayrton Badovini tenth and Leon Camier is 11th. The lanky Kent youngster experienced a technical problem with 15 minutes left to go and had to cruise back to the pits. Maxine Berger and Noriyuki Haga, who set his fastest lap with his first flyer, are 12th and 13th with Toseland stand-in Lorenzo Lanzi 14th and Mark Aitchison 15th.
Castrol Honda stand-in Alex Lowes crashed early on at turn eight but was unhurt.
