HAGA WINS SUPERPOLE IN CONVINCING FASHION - HAGA FROM TOSELAND AND DUCATI DUO Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) swept to a magnificent Superpole win at the 5.403km Brno circuit, setting a new SBK fastest lap of 2.00.457 on qualifying tyres. It was only his third career Superpole win, and his first since Sugo, 2002. He was almost half a second faster than the next rider, James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) who had to ride Superpole on his spare machine, after suffering a crash in the final regulation session. Behind the first two Japanese bikes, the factory Ducati Xerox pairing of Lorenzo Lanzi and Troy Bayliss went third and fourth respectively, completing the front row.

CORSER RECOVERS TO SCORE FIFTH FASTEST SUPERPOLE TIME Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) made up for a disappointing pair of qualifying sessions to record the fifth fastest lap of Superpole, promoting himself from 12th fastest in regulation. Some lurid slides and near off-track excursions for his team-mate Yukio Kagayama - the fastest rider after regulation qualifying - saw him drawing smoke from his rear tyre, and subsequently dropping to sixth. Misano race winner Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) scored a seventh fastest lap in Superpole, gaining one row and three places after regulation qualifying, while Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) equalled his pre-Superpole eighth.

KAWASAKI PUTS TWO RIDERS ON ROW THREE Regis Laconi and Fonsi Nieto (both PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) took ninth and tenth places on the final Superpole time sheets, with Laconi surprised to be down on row three, after setting a much faster lap than he had managed in the previous qualifying sessions. Nieto, third fastest before Superpole, felt that he needed to prepare himself better for Superpole when he qualifies as well as he did here, citing the long wait as a problem. A strong ride from Fabien Foret (Alstare Engineering Corona Extra) gave him a third row start in 11th, with the top DFX Treme Honda rider proving to be Michel Fabrizio, 12th, with his team-mate Pierfrancesco Chili 16th and last in Superpole.

WALKER 13th AFTER SLIDES IN SUPERPOLE PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse rider Chris Walker had several slides and one notable near fall in his Superpole lap, as he dropped from sixth fastest in pre Superpole qualifying to the fourth row. Steve Martin, ninth fastest in regulation on his Petronas FP-1, went only 14th quickest in Superpole, unable to exploit his qualifying tyres as much as many other riders on more powerful machines. Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda) blamed a fever and a relative lack of engine performance for his 15th place in Superpole, 16th in regulation.

GIMBERT JUST MISSES SUPERPOLE Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) was the top rider from his team in qualifying but missed the Superpole cut by one place. Ruben Xaus (Berik Sterilgarda Ducati) went 18th quickest, with the fifth row completed by the remaining Yamaha Motor France riders, Shinichi Nakatomi and Norick Abe.

SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) scored pole position with a new best Supersport lap time of 2.05.900 in the final qualifying session, easing out his closest challenger Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) by only 0.052 seconds. Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) starts from the front row after finishing another largely overheated qualifying session third. Fourth was the ever-improving Yoann Tiberio (Megabike Honda), winner of the Monza WSS race earlier this year. A small shower of rain on one section of the track, with just a few minutes left of qualifying, brought out the appropriate warning flags for the riders, and stopped all of them from making one final push to improve their best times. Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) stayed fifth fastest, and will start his comeback race from row two. Such was the close competition in Supersport that the top 20 riders finished within two seconds at this long 5.403km circuit.

SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP Luca Scassa (EVR Corse Ormeni racing MV Agusta) earned pole in the big Superstock class, in a finally dry session, after the opening session proved to be wet. Richard Cooper (MS Racing Honda) continued his good run of Brno form to record second fastest time, with Riccardo Chiarello (Lightspeed Kawasaki Racing) third. Local rider Matej Smrz (MS Racing) scored fourth place to join his team-mate Cooper in the upper echelons. Championship leader Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki) was only 11th, opting for the wrong choice of tyre in the final qualifying session.