Jonathan Rea

Jonathan Rea

Saturday, 21 February 2015- Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) will start the opening races of the 2015 eni FIM Superbike World Championship from Pole Position after successfully edging out fellow Britons Chaz Davies (Aruba.it – Ducati Superbike Team) and Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), who will join him on the front row. Qualifying results here.

Rea’s competition was fierce as Davies and Nico Terol (Althea Racing Team Ducati), could have elevated themselves to pole and second place respectively had not the red flag come out during their quick lap attempt, due to the heavy highside suffered by David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) with four minutes to go – which drew Superpole 2 to an early close.

The Spaniard, who was thrown off his ZX-10R at turn 11, was immediately transported to the circuit’s Medical Centre and then lifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for further checks.

Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and Terol will start from row 2 while Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Team) completed the top 10.

Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team Pole: “It was a strange way to end the session. From my point of view we did a good job with a race tyre in the high temperatures and the Kawasaki is working very well. We made a good set-up breakthrough in free practice four. I am really happy with pole position because it is the best possible result from qualifying. I also wanted the chance to use the qualifying tyre, however, because I know the Kawasaki uses the Q tyres very well too. So the lap time could have been quite good. But, this is still the best possible result for me after Superpole.”

Tom Sykes: “I feel very strong for the two races tomorrow but starting from this position on the third row of grid is obviously not what we wanted. I do not know about having a second chance to set a good time, it was just having a chance. I am a little bit speechless. I saw David have a very, very big crash and my first thoughts were with him but the final grid order is completely mixed up because everybody was building up to use a qualifying tyre. I am on the third row and this gives us a lot more work to do on our tyres. We will do the best we can tomorrow now.”

The Italian rider, along with Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Team Ducati) were the two riders able to qualifying to the second Superpole session. Last year’s STK1000 winner, however, was later disqualified due to using two qualifying tyres in Superpole 1 and will start the two opening races of the year from the back of the grid (24th place).

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 2nd (1’31.238)
“This morning we continued with our work, trying a few different options to see how the tyre reacts and I’m feeling well prepared, we haven’t had any real issues there. In qualifying, I planned to get out on the ‘Q’ as quickly as possible in order to complete my lap before any red flags could occur but I didn’t quite finish the lap in time. Anyway, a front row start is obviously a great way to start the season. We’re feeling as prepared as we can be I think, also after testing earlier this week, and I’m looking forward to racing.”
Troy Bayliss (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #21) – 14th (1’32.201)
“Today was certainly an improvement over yesterday. I’ve had time to get some good laps in and have felt a lot better on the bike. I did have a crash in the free practice, it was a big highside but I landed ok and was fortunately unhurt. I was a little disappointed to not have the chance to participate in the shoot-out but I’m still happy because I haven’t used the qualifying tyre for such a long time, and you need time to build confidence with those tyres. I’m confident that we’ll be able to make further improvement tomorrow. The high temperatures forecast fortomorrow will definitely be a factor but it’s the same for everyone so we’ll just have to see what we can do…:”