Sykes beats all-time World Superbike pole record
Full WorldSBK Superpole results from Donington Park
Tom Sykes has clinched a historic 44th World Superbike superpole to surpass Troy Corser’s all-time record in the series after beating Jonathan Rea at Donington Park.
Full WorldSBK Superpole results from Donington Park
Tom Sykes has clinched a historic 44th World Superbike superpole to surpass Troy Corser’s all-time record in the series after beating Jonathan Rea at Donington Park.
The Kawasaki pair have dominated at the British track while trading top lap times throughout practice and Sykes, dubbed Mr Superpole man, finally took the outright record having drawn level with Corser on 43 poles at Phillip Island earlier this year.
Sykes produced the opening marker to head up Superpole 2 before the Pirelli qualifying tyres were used with the Yorkshire-born rider storming ahead once again to beat teammate Rea’s provisional pole of 1m 26.956s with a lap fractionally of his 2017 pole record with a 1m 26.663s.
With Kawasaki locking out the front two spots on the grid, Althea BMW’s Loris Baz produced a surprise performance by securing the final spot on the front row – his best qualifying result since returning to the series this year.
Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori, a regular front-runner at Donington Park, claimed fourth place in qualifying ahead of local favourite Alex Lowes for Pata Yamaha with Michael van der Mark completing the second row.
Eugene Laverty heads up the third row on the Milwaukee Aprilia ahead of the two Superpole graduates Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati).
Wildcard star Bradley Ray continues to impress on his BSB-specification Buildbase Suzuki by qualifying in 10th place ahead of Puccetti Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam as Marco Melandri completed the fourth row for Aruba.it Racing Ducati.
Leon Camier was the unlucky 13th place rider who missed out on graduating from Superpole 1 by just 0.048s behind Razgatlioglu and Davies, while MV Agusta’s Jordi Torres and Aruba.it Racing Ducati junior rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi join Camier on row five just ahead of Luke Mossey who acts as a late stand-in for Yonny Hernandez at Pedercini Kawasaki after the Columbian had visa issues.
