Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda) took a home pole position at Silverstone, with a new best lap of 2'04.091. He held off the charge of Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) by 0.672 seconds, and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) by 0.992 seconds. Jakub Smrz (Pata B&G) moved forward impressively with some great single laps to go fourth on the grid. Smrz beat both of the official factory Aprilia machines and was one place up on championship challenger Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare).

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) went sixth fastest starting from the same row as his big championship rival Haslam. Troy Corser was eighth after running wide on his fast lap, and finished seventh for BMW Motorrad Motorsport, one place up on his team-mate Ruben Xaus.

Shane Byrne (Ducati Althea) was the last rider to miss the cut into Superpole three, and now starts ninth at his home round. Carlos Checa, his team-mate, made the top ten after looking good for a front row start at one stage. Sylvain Guintoli (Alstare Suzuki) was 11th, James Toseland 12th after falling when looking set for a better placing.

A strong ride from Tom Sykes put his Kawasaki Racing Team machine on the front of the fourth row, ahead of privateer Lorenzo Lanzi (DFX Corse Ducati), Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) and Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia), who had his best time deleted for cutting the chicane.

Wild card rider Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) was 17th in Superpole, Max Neukirchner (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was 18th, Broc Parkes (ECHO CRS Honda) 19th but Luca Scassa did not set a lap in Superpole, starting from 20th place on his Supersonic Racing Team Ducati.

Cal Crutchlow:

"It's nice to have pole again, especially here at the home race. My lap time was good, I was absolutely desperate to do 2.03, that was the target and the whole team were pumping me up to try and do it, but I made a little mistake coming out of one of the fast left handers and it wasn't to be. We're in the same boat as Brno, where we had a big gap in qualifying, but the bike's hard to ride over a race distance and we know that's going to be the case tomorrow."

Jonathan Rea:

"It's been a great start to the weekend, front row you can't ask for much more for the race. It was a great time but Cal was a bit too fast for me. I'm enjoying riding the bike, it's a lot of fun and these 18 laps will surely go by quite fast compared to my Suzuka adventures. I need to pull the pin quite early, but I'm pretty confident. The new Silverstone is awesome, a little bit bumpy but the layout is phenomenal."

Michel Fabrizio:

"I am very happy with my form today, and I want to dedicate the result to all of my team. Let's hope things will go even better tomorrow. My race pace is not bad at all, but I think Cal's is a bit quicker than mine."