Kawasaki's Tom Sykes has brought his form from yesterday's first qualifying into this morning's timed session, setting the fastest time as series leader Max Biaggi just scraped into Superpole, finishing in 16th place and more than a second off the pace.
Sykes set the quickest lap of the weekend so far with a 2'05.350 but he was chased hard by a resurgent John Hopkins, using a new engine spec in the Fixi Suzuki which also powered team-mate Leon Camier into fourth place. BMW's Marco Melandri splits the GSX-R1000s.
Reigning champion Carlos Checa was tenth quickest while Sylvain Guintoli continues to give the Pata Ducati team their best results of the season so far, putting the statellite 1098R in fifth. Youngster Loris Baz is sixth, Maxime Berger seventh and Irishman Eugene Laverty is eighth with Jakub Smrz one place further back.
It was squeaky-bum time for the rest of the British riders, however, as Leon Haslam, Jonathan Rea and Chaz Davies, along with Biaggi, were the last riders to qualify for Superpole as the rain came down with ten minutes of the session left to run.
Davies had problems with his Parkingo Aprilia and didn't see most of the session while Rea and Haslam can't seem to find a setup that works at this fast, Silverstone circuit.
