HM Plant Honda’s Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow go into this afternoon’s Superpole at the Portimao World Superbike round in sixth and fifth places respectively.

The pairing started the session brightly, regularly swapping second and third places with Crutchlow topping the timesheets inside the first ten minutes.

As the hour-long qualifying progressed though, Xerox Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio showed his dominance at the Portugese track, setting fastest lap after fastest lap.

At one point the Italian was almost a second quicker than anyone else on track and it wasn’t until Santander Yamaha’s Troy Corser got into his stride that anyone looked like challenging. After being at the sharp end early on, Troy Bayliss could only manage 13th place, so the advantage he had after testing at the track last week seems to have come to nought.

Eventually, it was only those two that managed to get under the 1’44s lap time with Fabrizio putting in a 1’43.609. Corser, meanwhile, was just over three tenths slower. Fonsi Nieto and Alstare Suzuki team-mate Max Neukirchner round out the front row.

Britain’s Jonathan Rea, who is riding the Ten Kate Honda Superbike for the first time, finished in eighth place, just under a second slower than the provisional pole. Chris Walker’s woeful dry-weather form is continuing and the Leicestershire man could only muster 28th, three places behind WSB debutant Tommy Bridewell.
Sterilgarda Ducati’s Ruben Xaus had a bizarre crash coming over the top of the track’s steepest hill. His rear tyre started to slide, then gripped, and then the front let go,depositing Xaus on the tarmac. His 1098R then slid down the hill for a couple of hundred yards.
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