With the action on track as hot as the air temperature off it, today’s Tissot-Superpole qualifying sessions at the 4.9km Imola circuit was scintillating, with Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) securing the 4^th Pole Position of his WorldSBK career thanks to a 1.46.382s lap time. For Giugliano today’s result marked an emotional return to the series following his injury at the official pre-season test in Australia.

The Kawasaki Racing Team duo of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea will join the Italian rider on the front row of the grid tomorrow in what are shaping up to be two very unpredictable races as the top 5 on the grid are separated by a mere 0.472s.

Row two will comprise Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team), Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), despite a small crash in the session and the 2^nd Aprilia RSV4 RF Jordi Torres.

Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Team) heads the third row, he will be joined by Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) while David Salom (Team Pedercini), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) will start from row 4.

Michel Fabrizio, his Althea Racing team mate Matteo Baiocco, reigning World Champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) complete the top 15 riders on the grid ahead of tomorrow’s two 19 lap races.

The earlier 15 minute Superpole 1 session saw Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) progress to Superpole 2. Camier was however unable to take part in the final Pole Position shootout after suffering a technical problem in the closing minutes of the opening qualifying session, resulting in his 12^th position on the grid.

Check out all of the latest interviews from Imola in the video section at worldsbk.com where you will also find lots of exclusive content.