Rain just before Superpole at the Misano World Superbike round this afternoon put a dampener on Michel Fabrizio and Alstare Suzuki's hopes of a front-row grid position tomorrow and he faces a mountain to climb from the fourth row of the grid.

Fabrizio had been third fastest in the dry and looking forward to a good grid position, but the heavens opened just after the afternoon's untimed session and the Italian had to quickly try and find a good wet set-up on a bike he's only had limited time on in the wet.

Misano's 4.226 kilometre circuit is renowned for being very slippery in the wet and Fabrizio was unable to progress any further than Superpole 1 due to unfamiliarity with the conditions.

Carlos Checa (Ducati) had dominated in the dry, but Briton Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) took Superpole in the wet with a time of 1:55.197. Checa was second with Jakub Smrz (Ducati) third and Marco Melandri (Yamaha) fourth.

The wet Superpole followed a highly-intensive morning timed session which saw the top 16 riders separated by just 1.1 seconds and an afternoon untimed session with 10 riders all within a second of each other.

Michel Fabrizio - 13th, 2:02.235:

"Obviously I am very disappointed the way things worked out. The weather ruined everything for me today and now I will have a lot of work to do to get good results from the fourth row of the grid. After yesterday and this morning, I felt confident that I could get on the front row of the grid or, at worst, row two. My bike's set-up was good and everything was going pretty smoothly, apart from a small crash this afternoon when I pushed just a little bit too hard trying to get the fastest lap.

"This track is very slippery in the wet and this is my first time on this bike here in the wet and it was very hard to keep upright and not crash. I didn't have much confidence in the wet and couldn't feel what the front end was doing. I rode as best I could but I wanted to make sure I didn't have another crash. I had a few little 'moments' and that was enough for me to keep things steady.

"I am hoping that tomorrow will be dry and I can attack in both races. I need to make two good starts and then fight with the guys up front. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the weather and, if it is dry, I can really enjoy the battles."

Final qualifying & Superpole:

1 Tom Sykes (GBR-Kawasaki) 1:55.197,
2 Carlos Checa (ESP-Ducati) 1:55.373,
3 Jakub Smrz (CZE-Ducati) 1:55.745,
4 Marco Melandri (ITA-Yamaha) 1:55.768,
5 Leon Haslam (GBR-BMW) 1:56.034,
6 Troy Corser (AUS-BMW) 1:56.285.
13 MIchel Fabrizio (ITA-Alstare Suzuki) 2:02.235.