Record-breaking lap-time gives Tom Sykes (GBR) his sixth pole position of the season
Sat 17th Oct 2015 -Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) has taken his 30th career Tissot-Superpole to ensure his place at the head of the front row of the grid for Sundays two, 17-lap final WorldSBK races of the season at Losail International Circuit. Joining the British rider on the front row will be 2015 Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Xavi Fores (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team), after the floodlit session saw the grid decided only in the closing moments. The leading two bettered the 2014 outright circuit best and gave KRT another 1-2 on the grid, with the best time of Sykes being a blistering 1.56.821s.
The fight to make it on to row two was a closely contested affair with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) edging the Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils pairing of Leon Haslam and Jordi Torres at the end of the 15-minute Pole Position shoot-out.
Tom Sykes : “It is nice to score 30 Superpoles and honestly speaking it is a reassurance that speed is not an issue. We will keep working and I hope that we can convert a few more of these pole positions into race wins. We improved the set-up just in time for Superpole and in free practice four we need to explore the set-up even further and see how the consistency feels. We will keep working and I need to thank Marcel, Danilo and all my mechanics because we have made a lot of changes to the bike settings, which turned out well. The feeling from the Superpole race tyre was faster and safer than before so I was a little more confident to do some more things with the bike. It should help us for race distance as well.”
Alex Lowes and his Voltcom Crescent Suzuki team mate Randy de Puniet will start from the third row alongside Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and ahead of Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati). Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati), who fell from his Althea Racing Ducati in the final seconds, has been declared unfit to race after being diagnosed with fractured third, fourth and fifth metacarpal bones in his right foot.
Superpole 1 saw the aforementioned Salom (Team Pedercini) and Leandro progressed to join the already seeded top 10 riders after Free Practice, they would eventually qualify 12th and 10th on the grid respectively after Superpole 2.
WorldSBK Qatar – Tissot-Superpole
1 – Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team 1’56.821
2 – Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team +0.176
3 – Xavi Fores Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team +0.563
