Michel Fabrizio raced to his best Superpole result of the year aboard the Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 with sixth position and will start tomorrow's pair of 20-lap races at the eighth round of the World Superbike Championship from the second row of the grid.

So far this season, the Italian has struggled in Superpole, but today he was fifth quickest in regular qualifying and his sixth in final Superpole was enough for a place on row two of the grid.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia) took his second Superpole of the season with Marco Melandri (Yamaha) second, series leader Carlos Checa (Ducati) third and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) fourth.

Michel Fabrizio - 6th, 1:59.908:

"I am happy to be on the first two rows of the grid, because it feels like a long time since I was there. It was very hard work out there today and I am very tired now because I was riding over my limit. But that's what you have to do in Superpole and today my reward was the sixth quickest lap time.

"Our plan, as usual, was to get into Superpole 3 and we did that today by using our two qualifying tyres in Superpoles 1 and 2. That meant that I only had regular race rubber to use in Superpole 3 and so I wasn't able to go any faster.

"Yesterday we had some problems with the rear end of the bike moving around on the brakes and today we solved the problem just by changing the tyre. I am happy with the set-up of my bike for the race and I am looking forward to getting two good starts and being right with the leaders from the beginning. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, but I really don't think any of us want that. It will make life difficult for all of us and I don't think the fans would be too happy either. I hope it stays dry and I can fight for the podium in both races."

Final qualifying and Superpole:

1 Max Biaggi (ITA-Aprilia) 1:58.580, 2 Marco Melandri (ITA-Yamaha) 1:58.801, 3 Carlos Checa (ESP-Ducati) 1:58.908, 4 Eugene Laverty (GBR-Yamaha) 1:59.055, 5 Jakub Smrz (CZE-Ducati) 1:59.541, 6 Michel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki) 1:59.908.