Superpole three
Carlos Checa 1'34.193
Tom Sykes 1'34.549
Eugene Laverty 1'34.562
Althea Ducati's Carlos Checa has bagged the first ever World Supebrike pole position despite fighting a 10kph top-speed deficit over the four-cylinder bikes around him.
The Spaniard, who is still in with a shout of retaining his WSBK title, was three tenths quicker than serial poleman Tom Sykes on the factory Kawasaki while Eugene Laverty took third and BMW's Leon Haslam rounds out the front row - vital at this track where overtaking opportunities are few and far between.
His team-mate Marco Melandri just nipped ahead of Honda's Jonathan Rea to head the the second row while Max Biaggi couldn't match his team-mate front-row pace and ended in seventh. Davide Guigliano, who was fast all weekend, crashed early in the third session and didn't put in a time.
Superpole two
Carlos Checa 1'34.435
Eugene Laverty 1'34.672
Tom Sykes 1'34.765
Title challenger Melandri made it through to the final session by the skin of his teeth with Fixi Suzuki's John Hopkins just failing to make the cut despite a promising first two sectors on his final lap of the stint which could have seen the Italian dumped out.
At the top of the tree, Laverty put in another impressive final lap to run Checa close while Sykes again was also in the mix. Biaggi rescued himself with his last run as Haslam sat in the garage watching as his time slipped down to seventh.
ELIMINATED
Loris Baz
Nico Canepa
John Hopkins
Hiro Aoyama
Superpole one
Tom Sykes 1'34.880
Max Biaggi 1'34.896
Eugene Laverty 1'35.092
Sykes surprised no-one by bagging top spot in the opening session but Laverty and Biaggi had to use a qualifying tyre to make it through to the next stage with the Roman Emperor jumping from 14th to second with his final circulation.
Another beneficiary of a qualifier was Hopkins, whose team-mate Leon Camier didn't make it into Superpole, but two big surprises were Sylvain Guintoli and Chaz Davies who were both relegated after being top-five men most of the sessions so far this weekend. Melandri also left it late to get into the second period, but squeezed through in 11th place. Baz was the final man to make the cut.
ELIMINATED
Chaz Davies
Lorenzo Zanetti
Sylvain Guintoli
David Salom
