Just over one hundredth of a second separates the two front runners in first ever World Superbike Championship race to take place in Thailand.

In the “superpole” qualifying session Johnathan Rea and Leon Haslam battled it out for the lead with Kawasaki rider Rea coming out on top to take the 6th pole position of his career.

The afternoon was dry and with the temperature being in the mid thirties conditions couldn’t have been more perfect. Rea laid down the challenge early and it was all about catch up from there on in.

Haslam came incredibly close on a couple of occasions managing to creep to just 0.011 seconds from his competitor.

Three times Superbike world champion Troy Bayliss had a better run today and was holding onto the 3rd spot until four minutes from the end of qualifying.

That place was snatched from him and he ended up in 7th place with 0.952 seconds separating him from leader Johnathan Rea.

Chaz Davies, who took a 7/11 pit stop for noodles the day before, finished in 7th on his Ducati machine. Another former champion, Tom Sykes, was also in the running and ended up in the fourth spot.

Taking the coveted third position on the gird was Alex Lowes on his Suzuki at just over a third of a second off the pace. The running was nail bitingly close which saw the top 7 spots separated by less then a second.

Mixing it up further, there are five different manufacturers represented in the top eight places on the grid. Nationalities are not so well represented however, with the top four places all being taken by British riders

.All eyes will be on the races tomorrow which, with everyone being so close, promise to be utterly thrilling viewing. 

* Photo courtesy of www.worldsbk.com