Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes has taken pole position for tomorrow’s Jerez World Superbike double header and also broke the outright lap record held by his 2014 team-mate Loris Baz with a lap of 1’40.292 which was enough to edge series leader Jonathan Rea into second.
The Huddersfield rider was just 0.006s quicker than Baz’s time but it was enough to see off Rea who starts next to him on the grid, needing only a single top-ten finish to clinch the championship with three rounds left.
Nico Canepa followed Rea around on his second flying lap to bag the final front-row spot, breaking the beam with a 1’40.508, comfortably his fastest lap of the weekend and it also means the former MotoGP man is the leading Ducati.
Michael Van Der Mark ran with Rea in his two runs, once behind the Irishman on a race tyre and then had Rea in front when the pair rolled out on qualifiers. The young Dutchman ended his session in fourth place, at the head of row two, with a best lap of 1’40.956. Jordi Torres was the leading Aprilia in fifth on a 1’40.974.
Chaz Davies put his works Aruba Ducati in sixth place and was the last rider to claim a slot on the second row. He has test rider Michele Pirro behind him in seventh place with the Althea Ducati of Matteo Baiocco in eighth.
Alex Lowes fought his way to ninth place, just in front of reigning champion Sylvain Guintoli while Leon Haslam slipped back to 11th.
MV Agusta’s Leon Camier will start from 13th on the grid tomorrow after only just missing out on a Superpole two slot. The former British Superbike Champion set his quickest time of the weekend in Superpole one, going down to a 1’41.745 but was beaten by Van Der Mark and David Salom, who put in one lap to edge out Camier by a tenth and promptly crashed into turn one, not taking part in the second leg of qualifying.
