The Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies took his second WorldSBK pole position of 2016 after a masterful performance at the Lausitzring. The Welshman was quick from the off, repeatedly setting fastest lap after fastest lap in SP2 before cementing pole with a 1m37.883s on the second of his qualifying tyre laps.
Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes has put himself in a strong position to potentially steal a few more points away from teammate and championship leader Jonathan Rea after placing his factory ZX-10R second on the grid, two tenths adrift of Davies. The Yorkshireman has a 46-point gap in the standings ahead of this weekend’s first race later today and feels confident on his machine.
Honda’s Nicky Hayden has enjoyed a strong maiden season in the Superbike World Championship, and continued his purple patch with his first-ever front row start in the series. The rider from Kentucky crashed in FP3 earlier this morning and left his Ten Kate team with a lot of work to do ahead of Superpole. Hayden managed to get out for two laps on the qualifying tyre right at the end of the session to elevate himself from 11th to third with a lap of 1m38.875.
Lorenzo Savadori will be disappointed to have missed out on the front row, but fourth is still an excellent effort on the Ioda Aprilia, especially as he’s managed to line up ahead of Althea’s Jordi Torres and reigning Champion Rea.
Leon Camier heads the third row for MV Agusta, outpacing the fairly evenly matched Davide Giugliano and Sylvain Guintoli, whilst Michael van der Mark, Markus Reiterberger and Alex Lowes rounded out the top 12. Lowes was unable to set a time in SP2 following a crash in FP3 which left his Yamaha R1 in bad way.
Barni Racing’s Xavi Fores, who like Lowes is fresh from the San Marino Grand Prix, will be disappointed with 13th having missed out on a spot in SP2 by just two tenths of a second. The Spaniard will start alongside Dominic Schmitter and Roman Ramos, with Ant West, Josh Brookes and Alex De Angelis lining up a row behind.
Luca Scassa put his VFT Ducati 19th ahead of Gianluca Vizziello and Pawel Szkopek. Karel Abraham, Peter Sebestyen and Saeed Al Sulaiti complete 24-rider field.
Race one from the Lausitzring is due to get underway at 13:00 local time.
See picture below for full Superpole results.
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