Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes out-paced his own team-mate, Jonathan Rea to snatch his first coveted pole position of the year during the World Superbike Superpole session at Assen this afternoon.
Huddersfield’s finest lapped a 1’34.789, going two-tenths quicker than his fellow garage buddy, with Isle of Man resident Rea setting a 1’34.920. Red Devils Aprilia’s Leon Haslam starts on the third spot on the grid, after an impressive 1’35.336, to complete another all British front row.
Aruba Ducati’s Chaz Davies was unable to find the pace of his earlier free practice sessions, and heads up row two, where he is joined by home town hero Pata Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark, and Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes, who bumped his GSX-R1000 up to sixth fastest at the flag.
Fores, Torres and Pata Honda’s Sylvain Guintoli complete row three, with former MCE British Superbike champion, Leon Camier setting a time that places him smack bang in the middle of row four, after a 1’36.402 rotation.
Initially, in the early stages of Superpole two, it was Rea was the first rider to set the pace reaching the dizzy heights of the provisional pole position ahead of Welsh wizard, Davies. But Haslam wanted to join in the party, and set a 1’35.713, with Sykes pummelling his ZX-10R to second fastest on the nine minute mark – pushing Rea down to third. Then Sykes did one better to bag his 25th WSBK pole position.
In Superpole one, Guintoli was looking to redeem himself at his team’s home track in the Netherlands and did just that to propel his Honda into Superpole two, along with BARNI Racing’s Leandro Mercado. The Voltcom Suzuki’s Randy De Puniet was not so lucky and couldn’t claw out of Superpole one, and starts both races tomorrow from 18th on the grid.
