Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) headed up the combined qualifying times at Imola, as he did at the first round in Australia. His lap of 1'47.458 came in today's second and final qualifying session, during which all but three of the top riders improved on their previous best time.

Second quickest going into Tissot-Superpole this afternoon will be Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert - Liberty Racing) from Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport), Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) and Haslam's team-mate Marco Melandri - who was the fastest Italian rider in qualifying.


Close competition was once more evident in the SBK class as the top 14 riders qualified within one second of each other.

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