Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two seventh-round World Superbike championship races from the front row of the grid after setting the second fastest time in Superpole this afternoon at Imola in Italy, and the Northern Irishman is 'delighted' with his good form, as front row of the grid was his target for today.
Rea who was fastest in both second qualifying and free practice earlier today, had set a strong time of 1’46.556 in Superpole three before red flags halted the session after Kawasaki’s Loris Baz crashed. The Isle of Man’er had one Pirelli qualifier in reserve but he was unable to improve his time as fellow Brit Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes took pole position,.
The Honda rider and his team made some changes to his bike and the results have pleased Rea and he is confident that he can challenge for the top step of the podium tomorrow.
“I’m delighted to be on the front row because that’s always the target for the weekend, as I said yesterday. I was feeling really strong in second qualifying and free practice earlier, making good set-up changes with the bike,” said Rea.
“I’m really enjoying riding the bike and I’m happy with our set-up for two 21-lap races tomorrow. It’s never easy but I feel more comfortable with the bike here and I think we’ve put ourselves in a position to be able to challenge at the front. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to win, but I think we’ve got a race package that will allow us to challenge for that so I’ll hope for good starts and two good races tomorrow.”