Eugene Laverty registered his second career pole position at Jerez.

Eugene Laverty will head the grid of the World Superbike Championship finale at Jerez after claiming a narrow Superpole victory over title challenger Tom Sykes.

The Aprilia Racing Team pilot confirmed his second pole position of the year and his career after edging out his Kawasaki rival by just 0.048 seconds with his 1m40.620 effort set down in the third and final phase of the qualifying shootout.

Early pacesetter Davide Giugliano completes the front row with a solid third place, with row two led by Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) from Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) and Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma), who crashed late in the session.

Aussie Mark Aitchison impressed with a career-best ninth place qualifying position on the Team Pedercini Kawasaki, a ride he occupies in place of the outfit’s injured regular rider Alexander Lundh.

Countryman Broc Parkes was another to out-qualify a host of regular WSBK runners. Parkes, who joins World Endurance Championship powerhouse Yamaha Austria Racing Team for the Spanish finale registered the 11th quickest time to confirm himself a start from row four.

A healthy 20 riders will make up the grid for the final races of the 14-round season, with under four seconds separating the pole time of Laverty from Vittorio Iannuzzo at the rear of the field.

Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha’s Sam Lowes registered his ninth pole position from 13 attempts in the World Supersport class, narrowly denying ParkinGO MV Agusta Corse’ Roberto Rolfo of a start from P1.

Former class champion Kenan Sofuolgu grabbed third and completes the front row for the race, with three different manufacturers also present on row two thanks to the efforts of Vladimir Leonov (Yamaha), Christian Iddon (MV Agusta) and Michael Van Der Mark (Honda).

Aussie Brodie Waters made steady progress over his first day of track running, qualifying the AARK Racing Honda in 29th place.

French rider Jeremy Guarnoni qualified his MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R in pole position for tomorrow’s final World Superstock 1000 bout of the season, denying Ducati’s Niccolo Canepa of the top spot, while Leandro Mercado completed the front row.

Agro-on Racedays Honda’s Kyle Smith recorded a lights to flag win in the Superstock 600 race in just his third appearance in the category.

Smith was untroubled at the head of the field but the primary focus was on the battle for the 2013 title which went the way of San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki’s Franco Morbidelli who took second for the race.

Rounding out the event’s qualifying activity was Augusto Fernandez who took pole in the one-make European Junior Cup class.

For the first time this season there was no Australian representation in any class outside of Superbike and Supersport.

2013 World Superbike Championship
Round 14 – Jerez, Spain

Superbike Superpole:
1. Eugene Laverty 1m40.620
2. Tom Sykes 1m40.668
3. Davide Giugliano 1m40.839
4. Marco Melandri 1m40.930
5. Sylvain Guintoli 1m40.958
6. Toni Elias 1m41.347
7. Leon Camier 1m41.837
8. Xavi Fores 1m42.215
9. Mark Aitchison 1m42.500
10. Chaz Davies 1m42.015
11. Broc Parkes 1m42.056
12. Lorenzo Lanzi 1m42.300
13. Ayrton Badovini 1m42.438
14. Federico Sandi 1m42.916
15. Michel Fabrizio 1m43.081
16. Sylvain Barrier 1m42.933
17. Leon Haslam 1m42.973
18. Jules Cluzel 1m42.976
19. Max Neukirchner 1m43.289
20. Vittorio Iannuzzo 1m44.232

Supersport qualifying:
1. Sam Lowes 1m43.118
2. Roberto Rolfo 1m43.560
3. Kenan Sofuoglu 1m43.611
4. Vladimir Leonov 1m43.674
5. Christian Iddon 1m44.255
6. Michael Vd Mark 1m44.330
7. Alex Baldolini 1m44.409
8. Lorenzo Zanetti 1m44.410
9. Riccardo Russo 1m44.613
10. Sheridan Morais 1m44.647
11. Danny Webb 1m44.706
12. Fabien Foret 1m44.711
13. Raffaele De Rosa 1m44.756
14. Marco Faccani 1m44.757
15. Massimo Roccoli 1m44.766
16. David Salom 1m44.775
17. Roberto Tamburini 1m44.965
18. Ronan Quarmby 1m45.030
19. Kev Coghlan 1m45.072
20. Jack Kennedy 1m45.089
29. Brodie Waters 1m47.476

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