2021 Catalunya World Superbike Superpole Result: Long Straight, One Lap On A Q

Submitted by Jared Earle on Sat, 2021-09-18 09:42

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