Smrz stuns to break Spies pole run

Jakub Smrz has become the first person, other than Ben Spies, to score a World Superbike Championship pole position in 2009 after a stunning performance during Superpole at Misano.

Ending Spies' record-breaking run of seven consecutive pole positions, Smrz's effort of 1min 35.434secs was enough to see off pre-Superpole favourites Spies and Jonathan Rea by a comfortable margin.

Both his and the privateer Guandalini Ducati team's first ever pole position in World Superbikes, Smrz will start ahead of Rea, Spies and Michel Fabrizio.

Having struggled with set-up problems throughout day one, Smrz shrugged off his provisional 13th place qualifying position to ease into the top eight shootout, his first effort proving enough to get him through without requiring the use of another qualifying tyre.

It meant he was able to tackle Fabrizio and Spies, who traded quick times in the early stages of the session, his second effort, which included an outstanding final sector time, pushing him ahead of Spies and into pole position with around five minutes remaining.

Rea followed on the road, but while he had the edge on Smrz during the opening two sectors, he lost out during the final phase to slot in some two tenths adrift of the Ducati.

Spies, meanwhile, couldn't make progress beyond third and was then left without enough time to re-enter the pit lane, take on new tyres and get back around before the chequered flag was deployed for the end of the session.

Cueing jubilant scenes in the Pierfrancesco Chili managed team's garage, while this marks Smrz's fourth front row start of the season, this is the first time the former grand prix racer has climbed onto the top spot.

Rea starts second, but will be disappointed to have missed out on pole position having gone fastest in free practice prior to Superpole, before topping both knockout sessions ahead of the shootout. Nonetheless, second marks his best ever WSBK starting position and it was done with his revised Ohlins-equipped Ten Kate Honda.

Although he won't be accustomed to starting anywhere other than pole position, third still sees Spies ahead of key rival Noriyuki Haga, whose quiet weekend continued to sixth position on the grid.

Again out-qualified by Ducati Xerox team-mate, and provisional pole sitter, Fabrizio, the Italian starts in fourth position, while Haga also finds himself behind a rejuvenated Shane Byrne, who was a fine fifth on the Sterilgarda Ducati.

The Briton has kept a low profile through the weekend thus far, but after just scraping into Q2, Byrne surged into the shootout comfortably before his last gasp effort nestled him between the two factory Ducatis.

Having managed to get all three bikes into the shootout, seventh and eighth for the other Ten Kate Hondas of Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari will still be viewed as progress, although the latter didn't aid his cause when he crashed on his opening lap and was forced to sprint back to the pit lane to try again.

With Ducati and Honda making up the majority of the Superpole positions - seven of eight, in fact -, there was no repeat of the cosmopolitan order that followed in provisional qualifying.

Amongst those to miss out were Aprilia, in particular Max Biaggi, who looked set to qualify for the shootout with his final effort before peeling into the pit lane and being demoted to ninth by a flurry of quick laps from his rivals.

Leon Haslam starts tenth on the best of the Stiggy Honda's after getting the edge on Suzuki's top representative Fonsi Nieto, the pair having recorded the same lap time. Nieto's team-mate Yukio Kagayama, meanwhile, couldn't match his third position in provisional qualifying to end up in 13th, just behind countryman Shinya Nakano.

Tom Sykes' tough weekend continued down in 14th position on the Yamaha, marginally ahead of Troy Corser on the best of the BMW's. The Australian was once again on fine form through Q1, setting the fifth best time, but couldn't sustain it in Q2 to start marginally ahead of Lorenzo Lanzi in 15th and 16th.

Earlier on in Superpole, Kawasaki suffered disappointment in Q1, with Broc Parkes and Jamie Hacking both missing the cut in 19th and 20th respectively, while they were also joined on the sidelines by Smrz's team-mate Gregorio Lavilla and Ruben Xaus.