Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda) took a home pole position at Silverstone’s round of the Superbike World Championship, with a new best lap of 2:04.091.

Crutchlow held off the charge of Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) by 0.672 seconds, and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) by 0.992 seconds.

“It’s nice to have pole again, especially here at the home race,” Crutchlow said. “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.”

Rea has been in form all weekend, securing himself a front row qualifying position for Sunday’s race day.

“It’s been a great start to the weekend, front row you can’t ask for much more for the race,” the Irishman said. “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.”

Ducati’s Fabrizio returned to the front row in a turn around of recent form, putting himself in contention for a podium result at Silverstone.

“I am very happy with my form today, and I want to dedicate the result to all of my team,” he said. “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.”

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 teammate 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.

Wildcard 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.

Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) posted the best time in Supersport qualifying at Silverstone with a 2:09.426 lap on the final qualifying session.

Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) pushed his way to second, with the final rider in the championship ‘big three’ going third – Joan Lascorz from the Kawasaki Motocard.com team.

The top three riders are separated by only 0.035 seconds. Bike Service RT Yamaha rider Roberto Tamburini was an impressive fourth fastest, local star Gino Rea (Intermoto Czech) was sixth because he could not improve on his Friday time today.

Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) moved himself into pole position in the final Superstock 1000 qualifying session with a 2:09.742.

Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Race Junior) slotted in second, and Andrea Antonelli (Team Lorini Honda) got into the top three thanks to his first day best time. Sylvain Barrier (Garnier Racing Junior BMW) is now also a front row starter, finishing fourth in the practice rankings. The top Ducati rider was Lorenzo Baroni (Pata B&G Ducati), fifth.

Local rider Luke Mossey (Sondelsport Yamaha) won a thrilling Superstock 600 race with championship challenger Florian Marino (Ten Kate Race Junior), a contest that came right down to the very last corner.

Mossey held off Marino to win by only 0.036 seconds, with Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Racing Yamaha) third and Davide Fanelli (All Service System by QDP Honda) fourth. In the championship standings, Guarnoni now leads Marino by 26 points.

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