Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea has taken the World Superbike provisional pole at the Nurburgring this afternoon by more than half a second from Sterilgarda Yamaha's Tom Sykes, who got off the floor after a crash.

The Irish youngster made the best of slippery conditions and managed to lap in 2'11.278, which was around three seconds faster than Noriyuki Haga's time from this morning.

Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam set the pace early on with a 2'12.979 but Rea came out of the pits all gun blazing to go to the top of the timesheets with a 2'11.572 with 11 minutes gone and then set the session's fastest time two minutes later.

BMW's Troy Corser nabbed third place with the Xerox Ducati of Michel Fabrizio rounding out the front row, just over a second off Rea's pace. Team-mate Noriyuki Haga heads the second row in front of Sterilgarda's Ducati's Shane Byrne, who crashed towards the end of the session.

Haslam is seventh quickest ahead of Guandalini Ducati Jakub Smrz, who crashed in this morning's opener. Ten Kate Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari is ninth and, somehow, Luca Scassa is tenth.

Richard Cooper, who is standing in for Ruben Xaus on the BMW, was 11th quickest ahead of Carlos Checa, Ben Spies, Max Biaggi and karl Muggeridge, who also lobbed it.
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