Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes has taken the World Superbike pole position just hours after becoming a dad for the second time ahead of tomorrow’s double header at Sepang but it was disaster for Jonathan Rea in terms of wrapping up the title this weekend as he will have to start from the third row of the grid following a tough Superpole session.
Sykes’ final flying lap of 2’03.240 was a quarter of a second off the outright lap record set last year by Sylvain Guintoli but the Frenchman joins Sykes on the front row after hauling his Pata Honda round to a 2’03.836 for his best qualifying performance of the year so far.
Jordi Torres continued his pace from free practice three, taking the middle slot on row one with his 2’03.510 to start from the front row for the second race in succession. Torres’ temporary team-mate Max Biaggi stuck in a 2’03.948 with his final circuit to bag fourth place which meant Rea was bumped from a second-row start back to the head of row three.
Rea started his final run well but lost the front of the big ZX-10R halfway through the lap. The Castletown man recovered after losing six-tenths but the same thing happened again into the last corner which not only ruined the lap he was on but also made a fast exit on to start/finish straight impossible so his last lap was ditched with a shake of the head.
A flying final run from Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes, who came through from Superpole one following a crash in free practice three, saw him hop into fourth place on a 2’04.018, which pushed Rea to the outside of row two with Chaz Davies for company, but then Biaggi’s last effort shuffled everyone down a further place, making Rea’s life difficult for race day.
Davies ended in sixth place on a 2’04.179, seemingly not able to get the best out of the sticky Pirelli, while Leon Haslam put in a stunning performance in free practice three but could only go a couple of tenths faster in Superpole so ended the day one place behind his old team-mate and the last of the Aprilias.
Nico Canepa and Matteo Baiocco, who came through from Superole one with Lowes, rounded out the top ten. Voltcom Suzuki’s Randy De Puniet, who made it through to Superpole two by right, could only muster a 2’05.100 in qualifying, which was slower than his fastest free practice time.
Michael Van Der Mark and Leon Camier didn’t make it through from Superpole one. The Dutchman was on a fast lap but got caught up in a crash by Tati Mercardo. Ayrton Badovini will not take part in the rest of the weekend as medics have declared him unfit after a highside in FP3 left him with concussion.
