Just two-thousandths of a second – 21 centimetres of tarmac – separated Troy from second-placed Colin Edwards, but the reigning champion and winner of the first six races of this season lost out when he made a slight mistake at the Ascari chicane during his quick lap. “It looks like I’m going to have my hands full this weekend because it’s going to be tougher than last year, that’s for sure” declared Troy. “Everything went OK for me today except in the Ascari chicane, where I went a bit wide, which cost me any chance of pole, but I’m happy with the front row and I’ll be giving it a go tomorrow. I’m certainly in with a chance of taking another double, but I don’t think it will be easy. We’ll wait and see what the weather brings, because it’s been pretty crazy so far this weekend. Monza’s a fast circuit and you have to come out with a conservative tyre, but we’ve done that and we’re happy with the set-up”.

Bostrom (Ducati L&M), who has been quick all weekend, struggled to set a time of 1’50.091 during his one-lap dash, a full second down on his qualifying time. The 28-year-old Californian was disappointed to be starting tomorrow’s races from tenth on the grid. “I don’t really know what happened in Superpole” he declared. “We’d been going well all weekend and I was really fired up for this afternoon. I feel great, the bike feels great and we’ve got a good set-up but in Superpole my rear tyre just didn’t have enough grip. I’m pretty gutted to be starting so far down the grid after being right on the pace all weekend”.

No Superpole session for the second Ducati Infostrada rider Ruben Xaus, who is still in considerable pain from the hand he injured in the last round in Japan. The Spanish rider could only manage seventeenth quickest time yesterday and when the conditions for this morning’s second and final qualifying session turned out to be damp, he lost any chances of qualifying in the top 16. “Nothing to say really”, declared Ruben. “I’m still having a few problems with my left hand, but for sure I would have made it into Superpole if the track had been dry this morning. Despite this I ran well in both the wet morning session and in the afternoon when it was dry. Tomorrow’s races are going to be tougher than ever for me, because I’m starting from even further down the grid than ever”.

Exceptional performance by Hodgson on the HM Plant Ducati, who smashed the lap record by one full second on his charge to pole. “I didn’t even know what time I’d done because my lap timer didn’t work”, declared Neil. “It felt good and when I looked at everyone around me they were all excited so I knew I’d done a quick lap, then they told me it was pole so I was well pleased with that”.