Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam had to put in a last-ditch lap in order to qualify for Superpole later on today after languishing in 20th place for much of this morning's second qualifying session.
The former British Superbike rider was suffering from undisclosed technical gremlins yesterday and they appear not to have been fixed as Haslam spent much of the session on the cusp of being eliminated.
After being in the pits for much of the 50-minute session, Haslam went out with three minutes to go and hauled himself into 12th place which dropped Alstare Suzuki's Max Neukirchner down to 17th.
Yamaha's Ben Spies is still at the top of the table with yesterday's fastest time of 1'58.886 and Jonathan Rea is second, also with his time from first qualifying. Neither rider was able to go quicker today.
Spies' team-mate Tom Sykes made significant improvements to his time, jumping up to third fastest with half an hour to go and remaning there until Biaggi bumped him to fourth with one minute to go.
Sterilgarda Ducati's Shane Byrne picked himself from a spill early on to take eighth place while Althea Honda's Tommy Hill just got into Superpole, finishing in 19th place, but setting a quicker time than yesterday.
BMW's Troy Corser went almost half a second faster than yesterday, qualifying in 10th place but team-mate Ruben Xaus could only manage 20th, one place behind Hill.
Kawasaki's Broc Parkes has either fixed or is riding round the chatter problem he experienced at Phillip Island, taking 11th place with a 2'00.012 time.
