British chargers Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam have put themselves on the provisional front row for Sunday's World Superbike double-header with second and fourth places respectively in first qualifying this afternoon.
Liberty Ducati's Jakub Smrz set provisional pole with a 1'29.336 but Rea was less than a tenth of a second behind despite another slow-speed crash to match his free practice get-off. Reigning champion Carlos Checa has recovered from his morning spill to take third place on a 1'29.507 while Haslam was only 0.097s further back on the factory BMW.
Fixi Suzuki's Leon Camier led the session with 15 minutes left but slid down to fifth place just ahead of Tom Sykes, who was fastest this morning. The Kawasaki man is four-tenths in arrears but two-tenths quicker than Michel Fabriizo.
Max Biaggi is the leading Aprilia in eighth but six-tenths off the pace while Davide Guigliano and Ayrton Badovini rounded out the top ten. Sykvain Guintoli just stayed ahead of Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies with Hiro Aoyama and Maxime Berger completing the top 15.
Peter Hickman, who is replacing John Hopkins on the Fixi Suzuki, finished in 17th place while Gary Mason was 23rd.
