Davies beats Kawasaki pair to Laguna Seca pole

Full WorldSBK qualifying results from Laguna Seca

Chaz Davies has beaten both Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea to secure his first pole position of the year thanks to a late lap in Superpole 2 at Laguna Seca.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider disrupted the Kawasaki domination in FP4 after seeing Rea take a clean sweep of practice sessions on Friday and the Welsh rider duly converted his pace in qualifying for pole position with a 1m 22.282s.

Davies claimed provisional pole ahead of Rea by 0.077s before Sykes split the pair, just missing out on pole himself by 0.015s, to set-up an ultra-competitive front row.

Rea saw his final flying lap ended by waved yellow flags at the corkscrew after Loris Baz suffered an issue with his Althea BMW but held on for a front row start ahead of race one at the US round.

Eugene Laverty converted his promising free practice pace on the Milwaukee Aprilia to take the front of the second row ahead of Alex Lowes on the Pata Yamaha fresh from his maiden World Superbike race win at the last round in Brno.

Laverty’s teammate Lorenzo Savadori completes row two after another impressive showing from Leon Camier on the Red Bull Honda to take seventh place.

Xavi Fores the middle of the third row on the Barni Ducati ahead of Superpole 1 graduate Michael van der Mark on the Pata Yamaha.

Marco Melandri suffered a disaster in Superpole 2 after a poor opening banker lap was followed by being caught out with the yellow flags caused by Baz’s off. As a result the factory Ducati rider will start race one from the front of the fourth row in 10th place alongside the MV Agusta of Jordi Torres and Baz who also progressed from Superpole 1 but failed to set a time in the pole position shootout session.

Toprak Razgatlioglu narrowly missed out on Superpole 2 for Puccetti Kawasaki on his World Superbike debut at Laguna Seca.