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Having been the only rider to go under the 1minute 26 mark in morning practice Greg found his rhythm in the opening minutes of qualifying. With a new tyre rule meaning each rider is limited to 3 rear tyres for qualifying, both Greg and Leon chose to go out on a race tyre to start. Even with this Greg was able to clock a lap time of 1:25.943 on his 4th lap to take the lead. Leon was unfortunate to hit the gravel at Druids early on, temporarily delaying his progress in the session.

Greg and Leon both recorded their fastest times late on; Greg had held pole for a majority of qualifying until Jonathan Rea stole it away in the closing minutes. Greg then bettered his time with a lap of 1:25.477 but it was not enough to regain the top spot from Rea. Leon moved himself from 5th on the grid onto the front row with a time of 1:25.813 as the session drew to a close.

Both riders were happy with their front row starts for the first round; 4th placed Leon Haslam said, “I am happy enough, we had a few problems today but I am really happy that I was still able to get a front row start for tomorrow. It was close between the top few riders today so we look set for some good racing tomorrow.”

Greg Lavilla, who will start from 2nd on the grid, was pleased with his days work saying, “Today was not too bad although it is a shame I was not able to achieve the pole position. I was on a soft race tyre for much of the session so to qualify where I have is a good result for me. My bike is set up really well for race tyres so I did not want to affect that by putting a qualifier on. I am pleased with the past two days but this is a good track for the Ducati 999F06’s so a pole would have been good here but I am happy with 2nd. I am feeling confident so we will see what will happen in the races tomorrow.”

Round one of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship starts Monday April 9th.