During Superpole Neukirchner lapped in 1min 38.524secs and was only deprived of pole position by a determined James Toseland. At the end, the margin between him and Toseland was only 0.023secs.

His team-mate Max Biaggi who is hoping to upset the apple cart by lifting the title on race day, finished in sixth with a time of 1min 38.982secs.

"I am so happy to be on the front row of the grid, especially as I've only been on this bike a total of about three and a half hours,” he announced, “Everything about this bike is different to my Suzuki Germany bike and I really like riding it. The chassis, engine and brakes all feel so much better and I can push it a lot harder.“

He is still surprised at how well things have gone, “I still find it a bit hard to believe how well these two days have gone and I'm hoping that it all continues. I would like to finish on the podium tomorrow, but we shall have to see what happens in the races, as I know that I have to ride for the team," he said.

Biaggi steadily improved over the weekend as he got to grips with the track, “"Every time I go out I learn the track a bit more, so it's no big surprise that my best lap was in Superpole. I have been consistently improving my lap times throughout the weekend and I feel I can run at a consistently good pace now.”

He still wanted a few little changes to his bike ahead of race day as he said, “Of course we still have some things to work out, so we will look at all the telemetry tonight and decide what changes to make for the warm-up tomorrow."