Factory Kawasaki's Tom Sykes has put yesterday's free practice spill firmly behind him by setting the fastest lap in the second World Superbike qualifying session at Phillip Island, keeping world champions Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa in, erm, check.

In what was almost a carbon copy of his fastest lap in pre-season testing at the Australian circuit, Sykes put in a 1'31.323s circulation but was chased hard by the two former MotoGP men who were a tenth and three-tenths behind him respectively. Both the Aprilia and the Ducati rider put in late laps to seal their front-row slots.

Serial qualifier Jakub Smrz took the final place on a provisional front row, pushing his Effenbert Ducati around in 1'31.738 which was enough to keep team-mate Sylvain Guintoli in check for the time being. Fixi Suzuki's Leon Camier has finally found some pace and jumped up to sixth late on. This will not please temporary team-mate Josh Brookes, who is struggling down in 22nd place on the same bike.

Nico Canepa put the Red Devils Ducati in second place early on but slipped back to sixth just ahead of Jonathan Rea, who crashed unhurt at MG corner and had to nurse his damaged Fireblade back to the pits for repairs as no-one has a second bike to use this year.

Rounds of applause went to hardy Brits Leon Haslam and Eugene Laverty who were both inside the top ten with only a few minutes to go. The BMW man is riding with a broken leg and Laverty is campaigning the Aprilia with a broken hand - which didn't stop him from clocking 200.5mph down the start/finish straight. They finished 11th and 12th in the standings.

Parikingo Aprilia's Chaz Davies was also a faller at the Southern Loop and he suffered a suspected broken wrist. The reigning World Supersport Champion managed to post the 15th fastest time and is only fractions of a second behind Marco Melandri who is still struggling with the front-end and clutch of his works BMW S1000RR, and is slower than his crocked team-mate.

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