Rea edges van der Mark for Magny-Cours pole in wet, Bautista 14th

Full World Superbike qualifying results at Magny-Cours

Jonathan Rea has claimed his sixth pole position of the 2019 World Superbike season as he moves closer to clinching the championship with major rival Alvaro Bautista qualifying down in 14^th place in the wet at Magny-Cours.

After a 30-minute delay to the start of the qualifying session for oil down at Turn 13 from an earlier session, the rain relented at the French track but conditions remained soaking wet throughout.

As a result times tumbled throughout the session as all riders found confidence and grip limits in the changing conditions, with Rea clinching pole position for Kawasaki with a 1m 53.955s.

That was enough to see off Friday’s fastest rider Michael van der Mark on the Pata Yamaha by 0.014s with Rea’s Kawasaki team-mate Leon Haslam rounding out the front row.

But it was a nightmare qualifying for Bautista on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati as he could only reach 14^th place, over two-and-a-half seconds slower than Rea, as he hopes to eat into his title rival’s 91-point advantage with three rounds to go.

One Ducati did impress in the wet with Michael Ruben Rinaldi heading up the second row for Barni Ducati ahead of Loris Baz on the Ten Kate Racing Yamaha.

Tom Sykes picked up his 50^th consecutive front two rows qualifying result in sixth place for BMW to complete row two in front of Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha), Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven Ducati) and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda) who form row three.

Leon Camier broke into the top 10 late on for Moriwaki Althea Honda on his World Superbike comeback from injury having been out of action since May with a shoulder problem.

Chaz Davies tumbled down to 11^th in the final qualifying results for the factory Ducati squad after a fall at Turn 12 while pushing in the final five minutes of the session. It meant the Welsh rider suffered the exact same fate as 12 months ago when he also crashed out in the wet qualifying session at Magny-Cours.

Alessandro Delbianco surged up to 12^th place to complete row four for Althea Honda, in front of Marco Melandri who fell at Turn 13 late on for GRT Yamaha.

With Bautista 14^th, he starts directly ahead of wildcard Sylvain Barrier who crashed at Turn 15 in the final minute of the session.

Despite topping FP3 in dry conditions, Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered in the wet down in 16^th place for Puccetti Kawasaki, as Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha), Leandro Mercado (Orelac Kawasaki), Markus Reiterberger (BMW) and Jordi Torres (Pedercini Kawasaki) complete the qualifying order.