Yukio suffered some gearing problems today and a lack of grip with his qualifying tyres and wasn’t able to push hard enough in Superpole 1 and 2 to get into Superpole 3. Ben Spies (Yamaha) took his eleventh Superpole victory of the season, with a lap of 1:42.412, over half a second ahead of his nearest rival, Shane Byrne (Ducati). Third quickest today is Michel Fabrizio (Ducat), with Jonathan Rea (Honda) fourth.

Sylvain - 11th, 1:43.406

I am pretty happy and satisfied with how everything is going and I am really happy about how well we as a team are working already. It makes the job so much easier and is a great sign for the future. I am getting to know the bike better and better every time out and I am happy with the bike set-up and feel I can do a pretty good race pace. Everything is going in the right direction and I am feeling very positive about racing with this team. Although the third row is not wonderful, it’s not so bad and if I can make a couple of good starts, then I think I can fight for a good top ten place. Yesterday a funny thing happened when I had my first debrief with my mechanics, who are all French by the way. I had a lot to say and I talked and talked for nearly ten minutes. Then I realised that some were looking at me a bit strange and I realised that I had been talking in English instead of French!

Yukio - 14th, 1:43.717

Not such a good day for me and I am not so happy because I really want some good results in my last race with the team tomorrow. Now I am way down the grid and I need two of the best starts of my life if I am to get good final positions. Today, I had some problems with the gears or gearbox and we couldn’t get the qualifying tyres to work with the bike. We also tried some different engine parts this afternoon, but the bike was not so easy to ride and so we will go back to what we know for tomorrow. The good news is that my times on race rubber are OK, so I am hoping that I still have a chance to end the season on a positive note.

Final qualifying + Superpole

1 Spies (USA-Yamaha) 1:42.412, 2 Byrne (GBR-Ducati) 1:42.996, 3 Fabrizio (ITA-Ducati) 1:43.015, 4 Rea (GBR-Honda) 1:43.126, 5 Haslam (GBR-Honda) 1:43.523, 6 Biaggi (ITA-Aprilia) 1:43.526, 11 Sylvain Guintoli (FRA-Suzuki Alstare) 1:43.406, 14 Yukio Kagayama (JPN-Suzuki Alstare) 1:43.717,