Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea has finished second in this afternoon's opening World Superbike qualifying session just behind the Xeriox Ducati of Michel Fabrizio.

Rea's last lap prevented a Ducati one-two as he leapfrogged Fabrizio's team-mate Noriyuki Haga and demoted the Japanese to third place with Sterilgarda Yamaha's Ben Spies in fourth. The front row are covered by just over a tenth of a second.

Rea lead the field right from the opening laps, going quicker than his time from this morning almost straightaway and then lowering the bar with his last lap in a run to a 1'39.496.

Fabrizio stepped up to the plate with 42 minutes left to go and posted a 1'39.336 which was almost immediately bettered by the Irishman who went fractionally faster.

Haga was at the top of the sheets for a single lap before he was busted down to second by his team-mate, and then Rea pushed him down to third as he once again hit the front with a 1'38.879.

Fabrizio's final lap was the quickest of the day so far, a 1'38.770 and Rea just couldn't find the pace to beat him, setting a 1'38.821 with final flying lap as the chequered flag came out.

Rea's team-mate Carlos Checa had to settle for a place at the head of row rwo after being as high as third early in the session with BMW's Troy Corser next to him in sixth. Alstare Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama is seventh with Jakub Smrz in eighth.

Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam is the next fastest of the Brits in 11th place on a 1'39.900 with Tom Sykes in 15th. Leon Camier ended the session in 17th, just 1.3s off the pace, and is ahead of his 2008 team-mate Shane Byrne.

The Kent youngster had been up as high as ninth with his a 1'41.011 lap time but even his quickest lap of 1'40.103 wasn't enough to keep him in the top 15 but it is a good sign he will make it into Superpole tomorrow.
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