After the normal one-lap dash Superpole had been abandoned and a ‘wet’ session (maximum 12 laps in 50 minutes) declared, Bayliss was the first to set a pole time before rain started to fall. But then in an exciting final few minutes on a dry track, Edwards and Hislop both bettered the Australian’s time. With three minutes remaining, Troy then went out and shaved a further tenth-of-a-second off his Honda rival’s time to clinch pole in 1’47.729.

“When the track dried after the storm I expected Colin and Steve to go better, but I didn’t realise that the wind had dropped since the rain” said Troy. “Watching the guys going faster than me, I decided I just had to go out and go for it. I didn’t have my favourite tyre on, but with the wind drying the track, things turned out really well for me. I’m looking forward to a good day tomorrow, although the weather could be a surprise. If it’s dry, I’m sure Colin and myself will be really strong and if it’s wet then there’ll be a few other guys in there as well”.

Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) had an excellent second qualifying session in the morning, ending up third, but then had a harmless crash in the afternoon’s free practice. In Superpole the Spanish rider was caught out by the changeable weather conditions and will start tomorrow’s races from row 2 in seventh position. “Unfortunately I went out a few minutes too soon, maybe if I had waited until the final dry period I could have got onto the front row”, declared Ruben. “However things have gone quite well for me this weekend and I feel sure I can get a couple of good results tomorrow despite starting from the second row”.

After qualifying third yesterday, Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M) was disappointed to slip down to ninth in this morning’s second session. The American was then unable to improve in the extra 50 minutes available for Superpole. “We were just not as fast as we would have liked to have been in Superpole. I think I just timed things badly” declared Ben. “I felt good earlier today, but things didn’t go the way I planned. The only good thing is that the bike feels excellent and I can’t wait to get racing tomorrow”.