Aprilia Racing's Max Biaggi has taken provisional pole position in this weekend's first World Superbike qualifying session at Valencia towards the end of a race simulation run.
Biaggi was just over a tenth of a second faster than Yamaha's Ben Spies who, in turn, just shaded Xerox Ducati's Noriyuki Haga by one one-thousandth of a second. Haga's team-mate Michel Fabrizio rounds out the front row.
Britain's Tom Sykes, also on the Factory Yamaha, picked up fifth place despite a crash later on in the session. He had been fourth but was pipped by the Italian with four minutes left on the clock.
BMW's Troy Corser made the running early on but it wasn't long before Spies and Haga began their battle for the fastest time with the American dropping to 1'35.769 after just five minutes.
Haga then lowered the bar by three-tenths before Spies went quicker again. The Japanese rider then put in the fastest lap of the day so far with a 1'35.132 which was enough until Spies became the first rider under the 1'35 barrier, posting a 1'34.907.
It wasn't until Biaggi put in his blistering lap with eight minutes to go that the lead changed. The Italian had put himself in third with a 1'35.265 with ten minutes left, and towed Sykes up to fourth.
Guandalini Ducati's Jakub Smrz put in another strong qualification performance with sixth while Max Neukirchner took seventh. Both Alstare Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama and Ten Kate Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari put themselves in the top three during the session but fell away to eighth and tenth respectively.
Jonathan Rea was the next best British rider in ninth, just over half a second off the pace, while Leon Haslam had a brief dalliance with the top ten but had to settle for 14th, just behind Corser.
Sterilgarda Ducati's Shane Byrne ended the day in 16th place, 1.3s off the pace and just behind MotoGP refugee John Hopkins. An obviously-struggling Tommy Hill finished in 27th, 2.3s off the lead.
