Submitted by Jared Earle on
World Superbike qualifying was fifteen minutes of cool weather, and some riders tried the two-stop strategy to use both their qualifying tyres. The Barcelona track is a one lap track on the qualifying tyres, with the long straight eating rubber.
Jonathan Rea headed out on a race tyre and didn't complete his first flying lap, returning to the pits instead of banking a lap time. Alex Lowes and Alvaro Bautista joined him on a two stop strategy, using the first lap as a settings check before fitting the fast tyres. Scott Redding held the top spot with a 1'41.404 until Toprak Razgatlioglu put their fast laps in, with Sykes setting a 1'40.963, reminding everyone how good he is on Saturdays.
Jonathan Rea, Alex Lowes and Alvaro Bautista headed out to an empty track and Rea put himself under two tenths off Sykes's fastest time for second place, beating the clock throughout most of the lap but dropping two tenths in the last sector.
As the riders headed out for their last lap, Sykes led Rea, Razgatlioglu, Redding, Gerloff and Lowes. Three riders were on laps to beat Sykes, with Jonathan Rea then Toprak Razgatlioglu stealing the top spot as Sykes circulated on his own.
Tom Sykes crossed the line to take pole position with a 1'40.408, knocking Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea to second and third place. Sykes broke Rea's run of consecutive pole positions with his fifty first pole position.
The second row was headed by Scott Redding, Alex Lowes and Andrea Locatelli, with Leon Haslam, Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Michael van der Mark making up the third row. Garrett Gerloff missed out on the front three rows in tenth place.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap | Speed |
1 | 66 | T. SYKES | BMW M 1000 RR | 1'40.408 | 316,7 | |
2 | 54 | T. RAZGATLIOGLU | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'40.694 | 0.286 | 318,6 |
3 | 1 | J. REA | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 1'40.921 | 0.513 | 314,9 |
4 | 45 | S. REDDING | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 1'40.978 | 0.570 | 316,7 |
5 | 22 | A. LOWES | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 1'41.086 | 0.678 | 317,6 |
6 | 55 | A. LOCATELLI | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'41.129 | 0.721 | 314,9 |
7 | 91 | L. HASLAM | Honda CBR1000 RR-R | 1'41.253 | 0.845 | 319,5 |
8 | 21 | M. RINALDI | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 1'41.275 | 0.867 | 318,6 |
9 | 60 | M. VAN DER MARK | BMW M 1000 RR | 1'41.320 | 0.912 | 321,4 |
10 | 31 | G. GERLOFF | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'41.405 | 0.997 | 310,3 |
11 | 47 | A. BASSANI | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 1'41.632 | 1.224 | 314,9 |
12 | 3 | K. NOZANE | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'41.744 | 1.336 | 311,2 |
13 | 7 | C. DAVIES | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 1'41.791 | 1.383 | 316,7 |
14 | 76 | S. CAVALIERI | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 1'41.801 | 1.393 | 319,5 |
15 | 44 | L. MAHIAS | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 1'41.808 | 1.400 | 314,9 |
16 | 19 | A. BAUTISTA | Honda CBR1000 RR-R | 1'42.055 | 1.647 | 324,3 |
17 | 36 | L. MERCADO | Honda CBR1000 RR-R | 1'42.215 | 1.807 | 318,6 |
18 | 94 | J. FOLGER | BMW M 1000 RR | 1'42.257 | 1.849 | 318,6 |
19 | 32 | I. VINALES | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 1'42.446 | 2.038 | 313,0 |
20 | 23 | C. PONSSON | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1'42.460 | 2.052 | 313,0 |
21 | 84 | L. CRESSON | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 1'43.841 | 3.433 | 308,6 |
22 | 83 | L. EPIS | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 1'45.732 | 5.324 | 301,7 |
Comments
Mister Superpole
"Old" Tom strikes again.