Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) has claimed the Pirelli Spanish round Pole Position, his 29^th career Pole after a nail biting Tissot-Superpole at the 4.423km Jerez circuit this afternoon after lapping in an outright circuit best of 1.40.292s. His time was 0.006s better than Loris Baz’s time of 12 months ago.

The top ten riders after FP3 were joined for Superpole 2 by Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda) and David Salom (Team Pedercini) who ensured their place in the final top 12 shoot-out thanks to their lap times of 1.41.432s and 1.41.632s respectively. There was despair for the Team Pedercini crew as seconds after confirming his SP2 place the Spaniard slid out of contention at turn 1. He was unhurt.

Superpole 2 lived up to the post FP3 expectation with the top 7 covered by 0.893s after 15 minutes saw the front row change throughout.

Joining Sykes on row 1 tomorrow are championship leader and team mate Jonathan Rea and Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing). The trio split by 0.216s.

Row two comprises van der Mark who posted a series of impressive laps to grab 4^th, narrowly missing out on his first ever front row start. He will be joined by Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team).

Replacement rider at the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team Michele Pirro qualified 7^th ahead of Althea Racing rider Matteo Baiocco and Voltcom Crescent Suzuki’s Alex Lowes who completes row 3.

Row 4 will see Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) ahead of David Salom who after falling in SP1 was unable to take to the track for the final 15 minutes.

13^th to 15^th on the grid tomorrow and therefore making up row 5 will be Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) and Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki).

Tomorrow’s two 20 lap races are scheduled to start at 1030 and 1310 local time respectively.