Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two World Superbike championship races from the front row of the grid after setting the third fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole at Magny-Cours in France, and the Northern Irishman is feeling ‘satisfied’ with his performance so far.
On the second lap with his Pirelli qualifying tyre, the 27-year-old Northern Irishman fired his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP around the track in a time of 1’36.906, just 0.3 seconds off the pole position time of Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes.
Rea will line up on the inside of the front row, next to Ducati’s Davide Giugliano who has been on a steady and consistently fast pace throughout the entire race weekend. The Isle of Man resident has been working on acceleration but a small mistake meant he missed out on a potential pole position.
“I’m really satisfied with our work because the team has given me a great package here that I can ride really hard. I feel that in the race we’re more prepared because the CBR is quite easy to ride and changing direction here is really good,” said Rea.
“We’ve been working on acceleration and maximising the power where we need it and also taking some away where it’s maybe too much. In Superpole I made a small mistake on my first lap with the qualifier and ran into the first turn too quickly which ruined the lap.
“I tried to give it a good go on the second lap and was able to finish on the front row. It gives me an opportunity for a good start and my starts have been really good this year. It’s very important to be on the front row because the hairpin is a big bottleneck for the riders on the first lap. Hopefully I can be at the front of that and set myself up for a good rhythm in the races.”
