Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea snatched his second World Superbike pole position in a row from under the nose of Leon Haslam at the end of today’s Superpole session in Thailand, heading the Red Devils Aprilia man by just 0.011s.
Haslam had a lead of just over half a second with only a minute of the session left to run, setting a 1’33.393 on his last qualifying tyre to sit pretty for only his second-ever pole in his WSBK career.
But Rea had other ideas, sticking in a 1’33.382 to bag top spot and his fifth series pole and the young Irishman is expecting fireworks in the race tomorrow with the top six riders covered by seven-tenths of a second.
Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes had been sitting in runner-up spot behind close friend Haslam but retained a vital-front row start for both of tomorrow’s races at the Chang International circuit. The Derby-based rider ended Superpole a little over three tenths off the pace but it was enough to keep former champion Tom Sykes on the second row.
Rea’s Kawasaki team-mate took top spot with a 1’33.954 with three minutes of the session left despite making an error on the brakes into the final turn but Haslam’s very next lap blew that time out of the water to the tune of 0.459s.
Moto2 exile Jordi Torres, on the second factory-backed Aprilia, took fifth place despite lapping on a race tyre towards the end of the period with the Aruba Ducati pair of Chaz Davies and Troy Bayliss next along.
Davies was right on the pace until the death, sitting in second with four minutes left on a 1’34.087 and had 45-year-old Bayliss right behind him but the duo couldn’t live with the outright pace of the sharp end.
Michael Van Der Mark, who came through Superpole one, occupies eighth place, one ahead of his Pata Honda team-mate Sylvain Guintoli with Tati Mercado rounding out the top ten. Leon Camier put the MV Agusta in 15th place.
Fastest laps sequence
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:28’10.988 1’33.970 174,464
66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:37’13.725 1’33.954 -0.016 174,494
91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 15:37’21.062 1’33.477 -0.477 175,384
91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 15:38’54.455 1’33.393 -0.084 175,542
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:39’33.382 1’33.382 -0.011 175,563
