Rain at the Imola circuit disrupted this morning’s final qualifying session, but the weather cleared for the top sixteen competitors to take to a dry track for Superpole.

With a time of 1-min 49.702-secs, Bayliss’ time was 0.81 of a second off the fastest time of the session that was recorded by championship points leader Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda) who set a time of 1:49.021 on his flying lap. Splitting the two is Bayliss’ Infostrada Ducati teammate, Spaniard Ruben Xaus who recorded a 1:49.155. Rounding out the front row of the grid is Japan’s Noriyuki Haga (Playstation2 Aprilia) who jumped from seventh to fourth with a time of 1:49.993.

The stage is now set for the final two races of the season, with Edwards holding a single point advantage over Bayliss. Both riders are aiming to secure a second World Superbike Championship, but even after winning a total of 14 SWC races this season, Bayliss finds himself lying second to Edwards who has won eight races, but more importantly for the American, he has won the last seven races consecutively and takes that momentum with him into tomorrow’s races.

“This morning it was really a waste of a session for us as it was OK at the start, but then the rain came down and that was that,” said Bayliss. “Free practice before Superpole was dry which was good and in Superpole I finished third, which has us on the front row which is important around here. We still seem to be missing something on Colin (Edwards) and hopefully we can work on a few changes tonight that will get us that bit closer to him tomorrow. There may be a little bit left in me to go harder, but I need to make the bike go better as well. I will certainly be giving everything that I can, that’s for sure. It’s forecast for a clear day tomorrow, so I don’t want it to rain as it isn’t very nice around here when it is wet as the track holds a lot of water and with all of the chicanes, it wouldn’t be a nice place to race at in the rain.”

The second row of the grid is headed by Britain’s Neil Hodgson (HM Plant Ducati), who slipped from third to fifth during Superpole after recording a time of 1:50.107. Sixth on the grid is American Ben Bostrom (L&M Ducati, 1:50.638), followed by James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati, 1:50.639) and Italian veteran, Pierfrancesco Chili (NCR Ducati, 1:50.688). The top ten is rounded out by Spaniard Juan Borja (Spaziotel Ducati, 1:50.917) and Italian Lucio Pedercini (Pedercini Ducati, 1:51.190).