Cal Crutchlow pipped Joan Lascorz to pole position for the FIM World Supersport Championship race at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia.

Lascorz led every session coming into qualifying but failed to make his dominance tell when it counted most as Crutchlow claimed his second pole in succession as he edged out the Kawasaki with a time of one minute 35.865 seconds.

Lascorz, racing on home turf, had to be content with second place, 0.168 seconds behind the pace-setting Briton.

Anthony West was third for Stiggy Honda, over half a second off the pace of the front two, while Lascorz's team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara completed the front row.

Championship leader Andrew Pitt suffered a miserable qualifying session and will line up ninth on the starting grid after crashing twice on his way to setting a time over a second slower than Crutchlow.

The Australian's Ten Kate Honda team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu fared no better, the 2007 champion managing just 11th on the grid for the third round of the season.

"It's been a tough day, for sure," said reigning champion Pitt.

"It wasn't helped by getting run off the track early on, but the other two crashes felt like a bit of under-steer.

"We've been making some changes to try and get the new bike's front suspension working like the old model, but we haven't quite got there yet.

"The power feels good though, and I have every faith in the crew coming up with something for us to try in warm-up."