2021 Assen World Superbike Superpole Result: Crashes, Yellow Flags, Deleted Laps, Oh My

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sat, 2021-07-24 09:41

World Superbike Superpole qualifying took place under a 21ºC sunny sky and a track temperature of 31ºC. Scott Redding was quickest in this morning's FP3, but the biggest news is the absence of a BMW team, with Eugene Laverty's team undergoing "internal restructuring" causing their absence.

The fifteen minute session opened with Alvaro Bautista setting an early 1'35.019, but Rea's first lap of 1'34.286 set the benchmark, but Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed out early on, overtaking Andrea Locatelli out of the Geert Timmer chicane. Garrett Gerloff and Tom Sykes also crashed out before they could set a qualifying time. Scott Redding set the slowest time on the first flying lap, over six seconds off Rea's time, after avoiding Gerloff's crash and deciding to avoid cooking his tyre past yellow flags.

After a pit-stop, Michael Ruben Rinaldi got within a third of a second of Rea's time, borrowing clean air off Scott Redding who climbed to seventh place when unencumbered by yellow flags. Rea's fast time was cancelled due to the early yellow flags, but he immediately replaced it with a 1'33.842, over four tenths quicker than his cancelled lap.

Three minutes left and Toprak Razgatlioglu headed out as Jonas Folger and Andrea Locatelli filled the first row of the grid, knocking Rinaldi to the second row, but Razgatlioglu, Redding and Tom Sykes all had laps to post.

Tom Sykes missed the flag, not getting to set a qualifying time, alongside Garrett Gerloff who didn't make it back out after his crash.

Jonathan Rea's fast lap, the only in the 1'33s, put him on pole position for the fifth time out of fifth races this year, but Scott Redding got his good lap in before the flag, ending the session in third place after Toprak Razgatlioglu knocked him out of second place. Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Alex Lowes pushed Jonas Folger down to sixth place and Andrea Locatelli heads the third row ahead of Leon Haslam and Michael van der Mark.

With the front row made up of the top three riders in the championship, Assen should deliver what Assen normally delivers, in spite of the race taking place later in the year than was usual.

Results:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	Speed
1	1	J. REA	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1'33.842		287,2
2	54	T. RAZGATLIOGLU	Yamaha YZF R1	1'34.028	0.186	286,5
3	45	S. REDDING	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1'34.053	0.211	289,5
4	21	M. RINALDI	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1'34.067	0.225	291,9
5	22	A. LOWES	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1'34.252	0.410	288,0
6	94	J. FOLGER	BMW M 1000 RR	1'34.336	0.494	286,5
7	55	A. LOCATELLI	Yamaha YZF R1	1'34.375	0.533	286,5
8	91	L. HASLAM	Honda CBR1000 RR-R	1'34.467	0.625	288,0
9	60	M. VAN DER MARK	BMW M 1000 RR	1'34.786	0.944	286,5
10	19	A. BAUTISTA	Honda CBR1000 RR-R	1'34.791	0.949	291,1
11	53	T. RABAT	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1'34.944	1.102	290,3
12	47	A. BASSANI	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1'34.944	1.102	288,8
13	7	C. DAVIES	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1'35.002	1.160	288,0
14	32	I. VINALES	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1'35.251	1.409	282,7
15	44	L. MAHIAS	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1'35.335	1.493	282,7
16	36	L. MERCADO	Honda CBR1000 RR-R	1'35.558	1.716	285,0
17	9	A. MANTOVANI	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1'36.059	2.217	282,7
18	3	K. NOZANE	Yamaha YZF R1	1'36.076	2.234	282,0
19	84	L. CRESSON	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1'37.156	3.314	276,9