Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam just lost out on provisional pole position at today's first World Superbike qualifying session, deposed by Nori Haga and Jakub Smrz with only a minute to go.
www.bikesportnews.com columnist Haslam came from 15th to pole with two minutes to go, lapping at 1'32.623 and looked set to be quickest but Xerox Ducati's Haga went a tenth quicker at the death of the session.
Smrz left it until just before the chequered flag to stick in his fastest lap of 1'32.312, which is half a second faster than Yamaha's Ben Spies quickest time from this morning.
Haslam is easily fastest of the British contingent, with Spies' team-mate Tom Sykes in ninth, Shane Byrne in 15th, Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea in 17th and Tommy Hill, on the Althea Honda, in 21st, 1.811s off the pace.
Rea's team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari set the early pace this afternoon, popping in a 1'32.991 after just five minutes. His lap was quickly followed by Aprilia's Max Biaggi, who went second on the same lap, just four one-hundredths of a second.
Kiyo's time stood until the halfway point when Michel Fabrizio put in a 1'32.932. With 18 minutes left in the session, Alstare Suzuki's Max Neukirchner headed the timesheets and was the first man to go under Ben Spies' time from this morning, lapping at 1'32.677.
