Smrz holds off all-Italian attack

Article from http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-news/7147-smrz-holds-off-all-italian-attack.html

After his superb FP1 performance this morning, Jakub Smrz (Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati) repeated the feat in qualifying, with a time of 1 minute 36.058 seconds. The Czech Republic charger held off a trio of fast and furious Italians, led by Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team), Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) and Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare), all four separated by just half a second.

An excellent fifth place was notched up by Kawasaki Racing Team man Tom Sykes, with early front-runners Troy Corser and Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) next up in sixth and seventh. The two Irishmen, Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team) and Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) were next up, while points leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) was uncharacteristically down in eleventh slot.