Ducati’s Davide Giugliano edged Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes to take the provisional pole spot in the third timed World Superbike free practice session, and the last one that counts before qualifying at Imola.

The local lad’s best time of 1’47.511 was good enough to displace Sykes from the top of the timesheets, but was still three tenths of a second off the lap record clocked by Sykes last year.

The Brit ending the morning second fastest with a 1’47.582, with fellow countryman Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea rounding off the top three, after he was able to improve on his best lap from yesterday by five tenths after a 1’47.665.

The first rider to improve on their time set yesterday was Ducati’s Chaz Davies. In the opening minutes the Welshman clocked a 1’48.136 to place him on provisional pole with just over 30 minutes of lap time remaining – pushing Rea down to second in the process.

Ten minutes later Sykes pulled the first lap in the 1’47’s of the session out of the bag to climb from third to first on the timing screens with a 1’47.582 lap. But little local rider, Aprilia's Marco Melandri wasn’t going to let the Brits take up the provisional front row and after a 1’48.018 went third, followed in succession by his compatriot, Giugliano who went two tenths quicker to place him second overall with 18 minutes of track time left.

Rea left it to just under the 15 minute mark to make his way up the timesheets. Yesterday’s provisional pole setter was fifth, but improved on his best time from Friday to go second, but was one tenth too slow to nab the top spot from Sykes after a 1’47.665.

Giugliano was obviously, feeling comfortable on his home track and edged Sykes by one seventh-hundredths of a second – demoting the reigning champ to second on the timesheets after the Italian did a 1’47.511 rotation.

Elsewhere the Voltcom Suzuki duo of Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes were languishing very close to the Superpole one places and very nearly didn’t make it into Superpole two, but in the final minute both riders soared comfortably into the top ten. Laverty’s last lap dash placed him fifth with a 1’48.031, with Lowes a respectable seventh after a 1’48.196.

Davies and Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam also safely made it into Superpole two. The Ducati rider just missed out on a top five spot by one five-thousandths of a second, with Haslam ended the morning eighth quickest, with Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli and Kawasaki’s Loris Baz completing the top ten.

BMW Italia rider Leon Camier was the fastest Evo spec bike on the track today, but the Kent lad narrowly missed out on a top ten spot, and was even as high as seventh at one point during the session, but at the chequered flag ended the morning eleventh with his best time of 1’48.477. Camier wont be the only Brit battling in Superpole one, Alstare’s Christian Iddon was eighteenth fastest after a 1’50.375 on his Bimota BB3 machine.

Entrants for Superpole two:

Giugliano

Sykes

Rea

Melandri

Laverty

Davies

Lowes

Haslam

Guintoli

Baz

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