Sykes shocks Rea for lap record pole position at Magny-Cours

Full WorldSBK qualifying results from Magny-Cours

Tom Sykes has pulled off a surprise on Jonathan Rea by storming to pole position with a new lap record at Magny-Cours as Kawasaki continues to dominate at the French track.

Sykes shocks Rea for lap record pole position at Magny-Cours

Full WorldSBK qualifying results from Magny-Cours

Tom Sykes has pulled off a surprise on Jonathan Rea by storming to pole position with a new lap record at Magny-Cours as Kawasaki continues to dominate at the French track.

After a Kawasaki 1-2 in practice, the two factory riders took full control of the top spots during qualifying with Jonathan Rea holding provisional pole using the qualifying Pirelli rear tyre with 1m 35.843s.

With Rea satisfied following his lap the Northern Irish rider pitted before the end of the session which opened up the opportunity for Sykes to steal pole position. The Yorkshire rider duly produced a blistering lap with a 1m 35.696s to take the lap record off his team-mate and bolt to a fifth pole of the year.

Despite being shuffled to second, Rea still has a strong opportunity to seal a historic fourth consecutive World Superbike title in race one at Magny-Cours. Rea needs to outscore nearest rival Chaz Davies by nine points while conceding fewer than 12 points to Michael van der Mark to wrap up the title at the end of the opening race in France.

Lorenzo Savadori bounced back from a heavy crash in FP4 to complete the front row for Milwaukee Aprilia to push Barni Ducati’s Xavi Fores on to the front of the second row.

Alex Lowes placed his Pata Yamaha into fifth place in Superpole 2 as Davies completed the second row in a disappointing qualifying session for the Aruba.it Racing Ducati squad.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi heads up row three on the factory Ducati ahead of local star Loris Baz on the Althea BMW with Superpole 1 graduate Toprak Razgatlioglu jumped up to ninth place for Puccetti Kawasaki.

Pata Yamaha’s van der Mark struggled in qualifying and will line up for race one down in 10th but ahead of Leon Camier on the Red Bull Honda and Marco Melandri on the factory Ducati.

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Eugene Laverty’s Superpole 1 strategy failed to work out with the Milwaukee Aprilia rider narrowly missing out on the top two graduate spots. Laverty topped the session following the first runs and opted not to head out on track again but the call backfired as both Camier and Razgatlioglu jumped ahead of the Portimao pole-sitter on their final runs.

It means Laverty will start race one from 13th place with Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda) and Jordi Torres (MV Agusta) joining him on row five.

Leandro Mercado heads up row six for Orelac Racing Kawasaki with TripleM Honda’s PJ Jacobsen one spot back, with Roman Ramos taking 18th on the GoEleven Kawasaki.

The final row is fronted by stand-in rider Jeremy Guarnoni on the Team Pedercini Kawasaki ahead of Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Yamaha) and Matthieu Lussiana (Dreamteamcompany Aprilia).

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