Tom Sykes smashes the times and is the SBK superpole man in Portimao

The World Superbike Championship today fought its battle for superpole at the Portimao Circuit. After free and official practice, we have seen what matters most today on the Portuguese track, as the grid positions have been confirmed and, as always, the best riders are the favourites, the trio fighting for the 2012 championship title.

The first round of Superpole went to Chaz Davies with a time of 1:42.516, but the first to dominate the times was Eugene Laverty. The Aprilia rider rode very fast from the start, setting a 1:42.635. But he was also overtaken by Tom Sykes: the Kawasaki rider placed 2nd, while the top five was completed by Laverty 3rd, Biaggi 4th and Haslam 5th.

Meanwhile, the remaining positions for Superpole 2 were completed by Melandri 6th (with many chattering problems), Guintoli 7th, Checa 8th, Rea 9th, Giugliano 10th, Camier 11th and Baz 12th. Our Checa is not looking very good, to be honest, but knowing the Ducati rider, he will give his all in the next superpole rounds.

The second Superpole round was the most intense of all, with one out-lap and two laps for Carlos Checa and Tom Sykes to set the fastest time. Number 7 was the first to attack and dip down to 1:41, a wonderful lap on superpole tyres. But the Ducati rider could not enjoy his position for long, as Tom Sykes beat him by just 0.102s to be the fastest in SP2.

Behind them, Laverty was 3rd, Melandri 4th and Davies 5th, who saved his place at the last moment, ahead of Biaggi 6th, Rea 7th and Haslam 8th, who went through to the third superpole round. Meanwhile, Baz, Guintoli, Giugliano and Camier were left out of the final battle for superpole.

Finally SP3 arrived, in which there was only one name: TOM SYKES. What brutality from the Briton on the Portuguese track: extreme braking, riding up the kerbs, keeping the SBK on the line and flying, literally flying. The Kawasaki rider had no rival and set the superpole and a new circuit record of 1:41.415, his eighth superpole of the season.

Behind Sykes in 1st, our Checa was 2nd, just over three tenths behind; while Eugene Laverty 3rd, Marco Melandri 4th, Max Biaggi 5th, Leon Haslam 6th, Jonathan Rea 7th, Chaz Davies 8th, Leon Camier 9th and Davide Giugliano 10th completed the top 10 of this grid. For David Salom it was not a good superpole, because of the technical problems on the Kawa, and he will start from 16th position.

A lot of action awaits us tomorrow at Portimao. What excitement.

Photo | Plusmoto.com and WorldSBK