Xerox Ducati's Michel Fabrizio stayed on top of the World Superbike timesheets at Monza this morning, setting the fastest time in qualifying practice two and only late charges by Max Nuekirchner and Jonathan Rea prevented him from being three-quarters of a second ahead.
The Italian, who has led every session so far at the legendary track, dipped under the 1'45s barrier with 15 minutes of the session with a 1'44.974s lap which was then nearly eight-tenths faster than the rest.
This proved to be more than enough as the pack played catch up but Fabrizio remained the only rider to go into the 1'44s lap-times. Neukirchner's Alstare Suzuki took him into second place with six minutes to go, setting an initial lap of 1'45.251 and then a 1'45.224, taking him within a quarter of a second of pole.
Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea finished in third with a late lap of 1'45.373 and Noriyuki Haga, who also took his time getting up to his team-mate's pace, rounds out out the front row, half a second slower than Fabrizio.
Aprilia's Max Biaggi finds himself at the head of the second row after being in third place with eight minutes left while the Yamha pairing of Ben Spies and Tom Sykes are next along. Sykes was the only rider in the top eight who didn't better his time from yesterday. Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam pushed onto the second row with his last lap.
Sterilgarda Ducati's Shane Byrne picked himself off the floor after an early crash to finish in 13th but couldn't improve his pace from yesterday. Tommy Hill also went quicker than his first session time but just missed out on Superpole, as did Jake Zemke.
