BMW's Leon Haslam left it until his last lap to bag World Superbike provisional pole position at Monza this afternoon, demoting Max Biaggi by only 0.019s to be only the second rider to dip under the 1'43s mark in first qualifying.
The Derbyshire man led for most of the session with a 1'43.424 until he was deposed by the Yamaha of Eugene Laverty but found pace with his final run to go in front of the Irishman and Biaggi, who had previously gone top with ten minutes left to run. Biaggi also upped the top speed ante, zooming along bloody fast at 207mph.
Laverty, along with Haslam, both seriously upped their pace from this morning. Haslam's pole lap was a 1'42.934 while the Toomedbridge man found a second to go round in 1'43.265, just three tenths shy of Biaggi. BMW Italia's Ayrton Badovini showed that he has good speed without a Corser-shaped tow, going fourth with a 1'43.276. This morning's fastest man Jonathan Rea could only muster fifth but still went half a second quicker than his previous best.
Pata Aprilia's Noriyuki Haga took sixth fastest and is only six-tenths in arrears while Yamaha's Marco Melandri was seventh, Corser eighth, Maxime Berger ninth and Leon Camier bagged tenth and added a crash at turn ten to his notes for the day. He was unhurt in the spill.
PBM Kawasaki's Tom Sykes is 12th fastest while James Toseland upped his pace from this morning, lapping in 1'44.989 with his broken wrist. Free practice crasher Chris Vermuelen didn't come out for qualifying after having stitches in his elbow.
