Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea took his fourth WorldSBK pole position from six race weekends this morning at Catalunya as title rival Scott Redding struggled to the third row.
Rea had some bike issues but went out at the death to set a 1’41.619 after waiting for track space at the end of pitlane. He was chased hard by Toprak Razgatlioglu who finished only 0.094s behind the five-time world champion who is now third on the all-time pole list
The pair will be joined on the front row by Honda’s Alvaro Bautista with the Spanish rider, who had shown strong pace all weekend, qualifying in third place. Bautista also secured Honda’s first front row start since Buriram in 2018 with Leon Camier.
More variety of machinery followed the front row runners, with Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) fourth on his S1000RR.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) continued the happy Yamaha resurgence since Motorland in fifth.
Only a small error in braking in the final section of his fast lap stopped Aragon sensation Michael Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) from posting a potentially fastest time, but he finished up sixth fastest for a second row start.
Despite his usual push and determination Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) secured a third row starting place of seventh, ahead of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and second fastest Independent rider Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha).
Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) completed the top ten pre-race on Saturday, with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 11th and Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 12th.
