Fabrizio on pole for home race

Michel Fabrizio claimed his first-ever FIM Superbike World Championship pole on Saturday in front of his home fans at Imola.

The Ducati Xerox rider recorded his fastest time of the Superpole session with his final lap, going around the Italian circuit in a time of one minute 47.735 seconds.

That denied current championship leader Ben Spies his 10th pole of the season by 0.043secs and handed Ducati their 150th pole in World Superbikes.

Great Britain's Jonathan Rea was third quickest on his Ten Kate Hannspree Honda, while Noriyuki Haga, who is 18 points behind Spies in the overall standings, clocked the fourth quickest time to complete the front row.

Guandalini Racing Ducati's Jakub Smrz suffered a crash in second qualifying but recovered to take the front position on the second row ahead of another Italian Max Biaggi.

Briton Shane Byrne was in seventh place just ahead of World Superbike debutant Marco Simoncelli, who impressively made the top eight in his first Superpole.