Tom Sykes smashed the Sepang lap record on his way to claiming pole position by a dominant 0.756s 🉐🉐at the end of a frantic Superpole session in Malaysia.

The Kawasaki star, currently thir🔯d in the world championship with one race win, was earlier forced to take part in Superpole 1 due to his eleventh plac෴e in Friday practice.

A brief rain shower just as S1 began raised the tension further, but the English🅷man held his nerve and - as track conditions improved - weᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚnt on to lead the session from Leon Camier.

Sykes t🌟ook that momentum straight into Superpole 2, where he set the pace by the halfway stage before the lik🐻es of Chaz Davies, Nicky Hayden and Jonathan rea took turns at the top.

But Sykes responded on his final l❀ap, vaulting from fourth to first with a new all-t🦂ime WorldSBK best of 2m 2.246s on the resurfaced circuit.

Pata Yamaha's Alex Lowes - seventh in the previous FP3 session - then snat🌠ched a surprise second at the flag, with reigning world champion and 2016 points leade♑r Rea a fraction slower for third.

Hayden, who knows the Sepang layout well from years of MotoGP testing, was bumped to row two (+1.189s), where he will be joined🍃 by Ducati's man-of-the-moment Davies (+1.239s) and Althea BMW's Mar✱cus Reiterberger (+1.303s).

Friday lead♓er Lor🃏enzo Savadori (Ioda Aprilia) will start from seventh, followed by Jordi Torres (Althea), Davide Giugliano (Ducati), Michael van der Mark (Honda), Pedercini stand-in Anthony West and Leon Camier.

Alex de Angelis and Josh Brookes were the best of those not to progress beyond Superpole 1.

Race one taไkes place later this aftern𓂃oon, with clouds continuing to gather overhead...