WSBK ; Tom Sykes on pole position at Motorland Aragon

Tom Sykes took his first pole position of the 2013 season (his career 12th) during today’s Superpole session at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain.

The Kawasaki rider in SP3 topped the timesheets with a single blazing lap of 1.56.339, a lap time which he could have probably lowered if he didn’t catch the chequered flag going out on his final lap.

Eugene Laverty who shared top spot with Sykes so far this weekend, took the second spot on the starting grid, but his race pace seems slightly better than the Kawasaki rider’s. BMW’s Chaz Davies will close out the front row and showing an impressive pace also with race tires, in his first ever SBK front row start.

The second row speaks is all French, with Sylvain Guintoli in fourth, however the Frenchman doesn’t seem to be in great form, as he was more than 1.1 seconds adrift, and if he wants to defend his points lead with team mate Laverty, he’ll have to squeeze out something more from his Aprilia. Jules Cluzel defended Fizi Crescent colors with his fifth spot, following team mate’s Leon Camier withdrawl and he was followed by Kawasaki’s Loris Baz.

The third row sees Althea’s Davide Giugliano, Marco Melandri who struggled with the qualifying tires and almost didn’t make it into the final stint, and Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea.

Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty using his first qualifying tire in SP2 topped the timesheet with a blistering lap 1′56.631, the three riders unable to move forward to SP3 were Carlos Checa and Leon Haslam, who missed out by just 0.036s and 0.039s respectively and Max Neukirchner.

Tom Sykes lead the first SP1 with a best lap of 1′57.504 and not making it into Superpole 2 was: Ayrton Badovini, Michel Fabrizio and Alexander Lundh even if they used their qualifying tires immediately.

WSBK Aragon Superpole results:

1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′56.339
2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′56.638
3. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′56.845
4. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′57.486
5. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1′57.540
6. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′57.869
7. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′57.975
8. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′58.268
9. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 2′01.613
10. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1′58.326

from Twowheelsblog