Reigning WorldSBK champ Jonathan Rea claimed top spot in this morning’s Superpole at Assen which saw Toprak Razgatliogl and Garrett Gerloff crash while Tom Sykes had a technical.
The Kawasaki man was two-tenths quicker than Razgatlioglu who recovered from his front-end spill at the Geert Timmer chicane to finish second with Scott Redding third.
Rea went to the top of the timesheets early on in the session, although did lose his first lap time following Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) bringing out yellow flags with a crash at Turn 16 as he looked to pass teammate Andrea Locatelli.
Rea was able to set a 1’33.842s on his second run on the qualifying tyre to claim pole position; his fifth in a row, giving him the fourth-best all-time streak of pole positions.
Razgatlioglu’s crash in the early stages of the 15-minute session meant he was on the back foot heading into the final run, but was able to post a lap time of 1’34.028s, missing out on pole position but able to claim second place on the grid for race one.
Redding (Aruba Ducati), looking to bounce back from a difficult Donington, will also start from the front row after showing strong pace all weekend.
Redding’s teammate, Michael Rinaldi, will start from fourth place after a strong showing in Superpole, with the Italian running as high as second throughout the session.
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing) claimed a second row start ahead of Jonas Folger (Bonovo MGM Action); the German securing his best-ever WorldSBK Superpole result.
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha ) also claimed his best ever Superpole result with seventh place, with the Italian running inside the top three at various points throughout the weekend.
Leon Haslam (Team HRC) will start race one rom eighth place with Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad) in ninth after the Dutchman endured a difficult FP3 earlier in the day which saw him punch a hole in his screen. Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) will start race one from tenth, with Tito Rabat (Barni Racing Team) 11th.
Despite showing strong pace on Friday and Saturday morning, Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven) will start this afternoon from 13th place just behind Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing).
Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) did not set a representative lap time after he suffered a technical issue on his BMW M 1000 RR machine in the early stages of the session, while Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) did not set a lap time at all after he crashed at Turn 2 on his first flying lap.
