Works Yamaha's Eugene Laverty looked set to lead the World Superbike field into Superpole this afternoon at the Nurburgring but championship leader Carlos Checa had other ideas, setting the fastest lap with a couple of minutes to go and suddenly leaving the Irishman with four-tenths to find.
Laverty jumped from fifth to the top of the tree early in the session with a 1'55.428 which he held until Althea Ducati's Checa demoted him first with a 1'55.080 and then he went a further half a tenth faster as the chequered flag came out.
Pata Aprilia's Noriyuki Haga found a second in pace overnight to take fourth place on a 1'5.4790 while Max Biaggi remains in fourth. The reigning world champion broke a bone in his foot yesterday when it was hit by a fast-moving stone and it is causing him some difficulty. Diddums.
A fully-fit Tom Sykes vaulted his PBM Kawasaki into fifth place with his last lap while Marco Melandri couldn't find any more pace from his works Yamaha in sixth. Liberty Ducati's Sylvain Guintoli nabbed seventh ahead of Castrol Honda's Jonathan Rea.
Camier just edged out Haslam in the battle of the Leons and the latter rounded out the top ten but is still only nine-tenths off Checa's pace. Michel Fabrizio is in 11th and Jakub Smrz 12th. BMW Italia's James Toseland ended the session in 18th and won't make it into Superpole.
