2021 Donington World Superbike Superpole Race Result: Moist

Another wet morning brought out intermediate and wet tyres for the ten laps around the hard-braking short Donington Park. 

Jonathan Rea took the lead from pole position when the lights went out, with his teammate Alex Lowes working his way past the BMWs of Michael van der Mark and Tom Sykes. Garrett Gerloff held off Leon Haslam, Lucas Mahias and Toprak Razgatlioglu. Into the old hairpin, a hairpin in name only, Alex Lowes lost the front and crashed out of second place chasing his teammate for the lead. Tito Rabat, much further back, also crashed out while Jonathan Rea set the fastest lap in the lead. Scott Redding dropped down to seventeenth place, ten seconds off the pace on his full wet tyres, eschewing the intermediates he hates. 

Garrett Gerloff in fifth place set the fastest lap on lap three, behind Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam, while Jonathan Rea held a lead of over two seconds over Michael van der Mark. Jonathan Rea set the fastest lap on lap four, drawing out his lead to three seconds as Lucas Mahias joined the riders in front to make a five-bike fight for second place. 

On lap five, the pace increased, with several riders setting the fastest laps, with Gerloff ending up with the plaudits that lap as van der Mark, Sykes, Haslam and Gerloff dropped Mahias off a second behind them. Toprak Razgatlioglu was over a second behind the Frenchman. Tom Sykes tried to pass van der Mark at the Melbourne hairpin but he couldn't hold it, going wide at the exit, but his second attempt into Goddards, the last turn, he neatly slotted under his teammate to take second place at the head of the battle. 

Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes increased the pace on lap seven, as Rea's lead held at over three seconds, but Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest lap hunting down Lucas Mahias and a second row start for the afternoon's race. Razgatlioglu passed Mahias into the first turn of lap nine of ten, but had a gap of over a second to close on Garrett Gerloff's fifth place. Gerloff had Leon Haslam and the BMWs ahead of him and needed a last lap effort to improve his place, but there was nothing there for him and he ended up in fifth place.

Jonathan Rea won the ten lap sprint and earned pole position for race two, with the BMWs of Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark joining him on the podium and front row. Leon Haslam, Garrett Gerloff and Toprak Razgatlioglu made up the second row ahead of Lucas Mahias, Chaz Davies and Andrea Locatelli. Alex Lowes and Scott Redding would start from the fourth row of the grid, finishing fourteenth and eighteenth respectively.

Jonathan Rea's win extended his lead over Toprak Razgatlioglu to twenty three points and the third-placed pair of Scott Redding and Alex Lowes scored no points, ending fifty four points off Razgatlioglu's second place. 

Results: