Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes took his 47th WorldSBK pole position pulled an astonishing lap out of the bag to take pole position at Magny-Cours this morning and marmalised the existing record in the process.
Sykes set a 1’35.696 with his last effort on the Pirelli qualifier - some six-tenths under his own 2014 record - to eclipse team-mate Jonathan Rea who had been in top spot with the first sub-1’36s lap of the weekend two minutes before.
The KRT pairing are joined on the front row by Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori - some eight-tenths off the pace - but it was bad news for team-mate Eugene Laverty who didn’t make it out of Superpole one.
The second row of the grid for today’s race will be headed by the leading Ducati of Xavi Fores (Barni Racing), on his privateer Panigale. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha) continued his return to form in fifth place, with Chaz Davies in sixth.
Michael Rinaldi (Aruba Ducati Junior) headed off French rider Loris Baz (Althea BMW) to go seventh fastest and take a third row start in race one later today.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki) completed row three, and was ninth fastest.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha), Leon Camier (Red Bull Honda World) and Marco Melandri (Aruba Ducati) comprise the fourth row, with Laverty heading the fifth row. Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda) was 14th fastest, in a field of 21 riders.
