Kawasaki Racing Team has been dominating the weekend so far and after being in firs and second place in all FP sessions, they did the same in Superpole. But while Jonathan Rea was first in Friday FPs and this morning’s FP4, Tom Sykes scored one more pole position on his favourite track, where he has won nine times till now.
It was a duel between Rea and Sykes: at the beginning Rea went first by running in the 1’27.503, but a few moment later Sykes got in front of him with a lap. The story repeated in the final minutes, when Rea shot a lap in 1’26.956, to which Sykes replied with 1’26.663. Sykes wants to take the crown of Donington back after Rea winning last year’s Race 2 and he will try to do it already in Race 1, scheduled today at 13:15 local time.
Who’s gonna join KRT riders in first row is Loris Baz. The Althea Racing BMW rider performed a good last lap in 1’27.348 and so he was able to break into top 3 and beat Aprilia Milwaukee’s Lorenzo Savadori and Pata Yamaha duo Alex Lowes–Michael van der Mark, who will start Race 1 from second row.
Much trouble for Aruba.it Ducati, the only team fighting with Kawasaki Racing in the previous rounds: after passing Superpole 1, Chaz Davies ranked ninth behind also Eugene Laverty (7th) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (8th after being in top 2 in SP1). Even worse Marco Melandri, who finished SP2 in 12th and last position. Great 10th place for BSB wildcard Bradley Ray, who took his BSB-spec Buildbase Suzuki also in front of Leon Haslam (11th).
Among those who didn’t make it to Superpole 2 we have well-established WorldSBK names such as Leon Camier and Jordi Torres (starting 13th and 14th) and BSB stars such as Luke Mossey (16th as replacement rider of Yonny Hernandez), Gino Rea (23rd) and Mason Law (no time set after crashing at Redgate in the early stages of SP1). Disaster for Barni Racing Ducati’s Xavi Forés, who’ll have to start from 22nd place after a difficult SP1.