Ducati’s Chaz Davies put the woes of Friday practice behind him to take pole position for the first race of the Aragon weekend, setting a new lap record in the process.
Davies has endured a difficult time of things so far at MotorLand Aragon, losing FP1 to a blown engine and struggling in second practice to get comfortable on the bike.
After the opening runs on race rubber, Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea led team-mate Tom Sykes and Davies, whilst Yamaha’s Alex Lowes parked up at the side of the track with a mechanical issue.
On qualifying rubber, Rea dipped underneath the outright lap record with a 1m49.350s, with Sykes just over a tenth of a second adrift. But Davies had the bit between his teeth, and took his first pole of 2017 with a 1m49.319s.
Pirelli’s new qualifying tyre was meant to give the rider three flying laps, but this proved not to be the case and neither Rea nor Sykes could improve on the Ducati riders time.
Davies’ team-mate Marc Melandri heads up row two, but will be disappointed at being half a second adrift of the pole time. Barni’s Xavi Fores was an impressive fifth, with compatriot Jordi Torres completing the second row.
Michael van der Mark was top Yamaha in seventh, with returnee Leandro Mercado a very respectable eighth on the Ioda Aprilia.. Eugene Laverty edged Nicky Hayden to ninth, whilst the sister Honda of Stefan Bradl suffered a fiery exit in the closing stages. Lowes rounded out the top 12.
Althea BMW’s Markus Reiterberger was left stranded in 13th after a late crash at Turn 2, a bizarre scenario that also saw Grillini’s Ondrej Jezek and Puccetti’s Randy Krummenacher fall at the same place and the same time.
This allowed Roman Ramos to capitalise on his Go Eleven Kawasaki, the Spaniard putting in a decent effort of 1m51.557s to go 14th for his home race. The lack of grunt from the MV Agusta kept Leon Camier in 15th.
Julian Simon will start his maiden WorldSBK weekend from a respectable 17th on the grid sandwiched between fellow former grand prix riders Krummernacher and Alex de Angelis. Ricardo Russo, Jezek and Ayrton Badovini complete the field.
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