Pata Honda rider Michel Fabrizio will start tomorrow’s 13th-round World Superbike championship race from the second row of the grid after setting the fifth fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole sessions at Magny-Cours in France.

With heavy overnight rain and showers right up to 15.00hrs, Superpole started with a wet track and was reduced to two 20-minute sessions, from which British rider Tom Sykes emerged in pole position.

Fabrizio left it late in the drying second session to secure his best start for the Pata Honda team since he replaced the injured Jonathan Rea at Istanbul in Turkey last month. The 29-year-old from Rome, Italy had to push hard on a qualifying tyre on his final lap to secure the second row starting position.

His Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam was one of the first riders out on intermediate tyres in the wet-dry conditions of Superpole 1 but crashed near the end of the session. The 30-year-old British rider managed to bring the bike back to the pits for repairs but, on his return to the track, he hit two damp patches as he pushed to reach Superpole 2 and was unable to progress.

Michel Fabrizio – P5

I didn’t really have any problems apart from confidence and not knowing how hard to push on the wet track at the beginning of Superpole. The feeling was not so good but I knew that I really had to push on my last lap to improve my position. It was very important for me to start on the second row, so I’m very happy to be there. If it’s dry tomorrow I think I could go with Giugliano and Laverty so I hope to have two good races.

Leon Haslam – P15

I went out with intermediates when others were on full wets and I hit a wet patch and crashed. I was able to go out again on the same tyres but made another big mistake with the one lap that I got and that was that. The pace was easy enough to stay with but I made a mistake with the crash and then another when I managed to get back out. We haven’t had any more dry time today so it’s hard to say whether we’ve made any progress. Tomorrow will be a gamble, wet or dry, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

We struggled with rear grip in the wet this morning so have work to do there. It began to dry in Superpole and Leon was a little unlucky with the crash and then had two little moments which didn’t allow him to improve. Michel managed to get fifth when the track was still not completely dry so well done to him and the team. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring but we hope it’s something good.

Qualifying position

1 Tom Sykes 1'38.592 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 1'39.397 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Davide Giugliano 1'39.933 ITA APRILIA Althea Racing
4 Eugene Laverty 1'40.410 IRL APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
5 Michel Fabrizio 1'40.864 ITA HONDA Pata Honda
6 Ayrton Badovini 1'40.926 ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
7 Marco Melandri 1'41.361 ITA BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
8 Chaz Davies 1'41.375 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
9 Vincent Philippe 1'39.579 FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
10 Michele Pirro 1'47.871 ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
11 Toni Elias 1'47.886 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
12 Jules Cluzel 1'48.221 FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
13 David Salom 1'48.916 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
14 Lorenzo Lanzi 1'50.257 ITA DUCATI Mesaroli Transports A.S.
15 Leon Haslam 1'51.796 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
16 Mark Aitchinson 1'41.137 AUS DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
17 Federico Sandi 1'41.281 ITA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
18 Fabrizio Lai 1'42.474 FRA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
19 Vittorio Iannuzzo 1'43.180 ITA BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic

Championship standings

1 Tom Sykes 361 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Eugene Laverty 338 pts IRL APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Sylvain Guintoli 337 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Marco Melandri 319 pts ITA BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
5 Chaz Davies 259 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team
6 Loris Baz 180 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
7 Michel Fabrizio 177 pts ITA HONDA Pata Honda
8 Jonathan Rea 176 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
9 Davide Giugliano 169 pts ITA APRILIA Althea Racing
10 Jules Cluzel 160 pts FRA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
11 Leon Camier 114 pts GBR SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
12 Ayrton Badovini 114 pts ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
13 Max Neukirchner 84 pts GER DUCATI MR-Racing
14 Leon Haslam 83 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
15 Carlos Checa 80 pts SPA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
16 Federico Sandi 47 pts ITA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
17 Toni Elias 38 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
18 Mark Aitchinson 29 pts AUS DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
19 Vittorio Iannuzzo 26 pts ITA BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic
20 Ivan Clementi 18 pts ITA BMW HTM Racing
21 Niccolo Canepa 12 pts ITA DUCATI Team Ducati Alstare
22 David Salom 12 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
23 Alexander Lundh 10 pts SWE KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
24 Roger Lee Hayden 8 pts USA SUZUKI (Michael Jordan Motorsports)
25 Fabrizio Lai 8 pts FRA KAWASAKI Pedercini Team
26 Blake Young 8 pts USA SUZUKI Fixi Crescent Suzuki
27 Markus Reiterberger 7 pts GER BMW Vanzon-Remeha-BMW
28 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW Next Gen Motorsports
29 Tolga Uprak 5 pts TUR KAWASAKI CMS-Eypbike Racing Team
30 Matej Smrz 4 pts GER YAMAHA Yamaha Motor Deutschland
31 Jamie Stauffer 4 pts AUS HONDA Team Honda Racing
32 Yunus Ercelik 3 pts TUR BMW Sampiyon 169 Team
33 Noriyuki Haga 2 pts JPN BMW Team Grillini Dentalmatic
34 Kosuke Akiyoshi 2 pts JPN HONDA Pata Honda
35 Danny Eslick 2 pts USA SUZUKI (Michael Jordan Motorsports)

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