Britain's Tom Sykes claimed his seventh pole in nine World Superbike Championship events this season as he powered to the top of the timesheets in qualifying for Sunday's races at Brno.
The Kawasaki rider set a new lap record of one minute 58.010 seconds, good enough to edge out reigning champion Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati), Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) and Davide Giugliano (Althea Ducati).
Marco Melandri (BMW) took fifth place with Jonathan Rea (Honda) in sixth.
Championship leader Max Biaggi (Aprilia), who holds a 48-point lead over Melandri at the head of the riders' standings, was eliminated in the first phase of qualifying after attempting to complete the session without using the quicker qualifying tyre, and will line up 14th for tomorrow's two races.
There was drama in the second part of qualifying when Giugliano's bike leaked fluid onto the circuit, triggering crashes for the Ducati man, Ayrton Badovini, Jakub Smrz and David Salom.
The incident saw the session red-flagged for more than an hour as marshals worked to clean the track surface.
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