Kawasaki's Tom Sykes has set the second fastest time in this morning's final World Superbike qualifying session ahead of Superpole later on today and was only a tenth of a second slower than quickest man Jakub Smrz who grabbed top spot from the Briton with his last lap.
Sykes had shot to the top of the timesheets on a 1'28.877 with only a new minutes left to run, toppling BMW's Marco Melandri but then Smrz came out for his final run to set a 1'28.740. Melandri finished the session down in fifth as Carlos Checa and Leon Haslam also managed to go quicker.
Fixi Suzuki's Leon Camier was fastest at half distance but then slipped back to sixth but the tall Andorran resident is still only a third of a second behind the leader. Michel Fabrizio is in seventh depsite an early tumble at Melbourne while Honda's Jonathan Rea sits in eighth.
Chaz Davies, on the Parkingo Aprilia, has found some pace overnight to finish as the leading RSV4 and he has Max Biaggi right behind him in tenth. Davide Guigliano heads Sylvain Guintoli and Ayrton Badovini while Eugene Laverty continues to struggle in 14th place. Peter Hickman was 19th and Gary Mason 23rd.
