Sykes secures seventh pole in Brno
Tom Sykes continued his Saturday afternoon domination as the Kawasaki Racing rider secured his seventh pole of the season in Brno after a long red-flag delay.
Marco Melandri set the pace in Superpole 1 with a 1:58.837, less than a tenth ahead of Eugene Laverty while reigning World Champion Carlos Checa was third.
Brno ace Max Biaggi failed to make it through, down in 14th place, while Leon Camier, Loris Baz and John Hopkins also dropped out.
Superpole 2 kicked off with Laverty setting the pace, however, with eight minutes remaining in the session it was red-flagged when Friday's pace-setter Davide Giugliano suffered an engine failure.
The Ducati rider's 1199 began spewing fluids out onto the track, forcing race control to halt the action while the asphalt was cleaned.
With Superpole 2 under way again an hour later the rain started to fall, meaning the session was changed to a 20-minute final outing with Kawasaki's Sykes coming to the fore with a 1:58.010.
Checa was second quickest, 0.460s off the pace while Laverty was third. Giugliano recovered from his earlier woes to complete the front row of the Brno Grid.
TIMES
1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1'58.010
2. Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1'58.470
3. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) 1'58.741
4. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) 1'58.789
5. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1'58.885
6. Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) 1'59.560
7. Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1'59.583
8. Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) 1'59.621
9. Chaz Davies (ParkinGO MTC Racing) 1'59.748
10. Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) 1'59.871
11. David Salom (Team Pedercini) 1'59.279
12. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) 1'59.154
13. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) '59.439
14. Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) 1'59.453
15. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1'59.627
16. John Hopkins (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 1'59.973
17. Lorenzo Zanetti (PATA Racing Team) 2'00.591
18. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) 2'00.693
19. Maxime Berger (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) 2'00.978
20. Alessandro Polita (Red Devils Roma) 2'02.023
21. Leandro Mercado (Team Pedercini) 2'02.952
22. Norino Brignola (Grillini Progea Superbike Team) 2'03.524
23. Viktor Kispataki (Prop-tech ltd) 2'04.259
