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Magny-Cours WSBK: Sofuoglu edges Lowes to clinch Supersport pole

Yakhnich Yamaha’s Sam Lowes will start the World Supersport race from the front row at Magny-Cours tomorrow, but missed out on pole by six tenths of a second from rival, MAHI Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu.

The Derby rider did look set to start from the number one spot on the grid, as he set the pace for most of the 45 minutes of lap time. But with thirteen minutes left Sofuoglu stormed to the top of the timesheets after an impressive 1’41.475. Rain had blighted most of the weekend, but had stopped in time for the Supersport rider’s to make it out on to the track.

However hard Lowes tried he could not topple the Turkish rider, and could not lap in the 1’41’s and had to settle for second after a 1’42.038. But Lowes will not be the only Brit starting on the front row, ParkinGO MV’s Christian Iddon was at the sharp end during the dying minutes of the outing, and was only four one-hundredths of a second slower than the Lincolnshire lad.

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But the qualifying session ended a minute early, after pole setter, Sofuolgu crashed at Golf and the red flags immediately went out. The current champ was not the only rider to hit the gravel, Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy crashed at Imola. He was declared OK at the track side and made his way back to the pits.

PTR Honda’s Danny Webb, was on course for a front row start, as he was third quickest with a 1’42.721 lap, with thirteen minutes remaining. He was out paced by Tamburini and Morais, but still has a good start from the second row on Sunday.

There was the battle of the Pata Honda’s out on the French circuit, with Lorenzo Zanetti having the edge over Dutch team-mate Michael Van der Mark. The Italian went five one-hundredths of a second faster and finished the session in seventh.

DMC-Lorenzini rider Kev Coghlan completed the top ten. The Perthshire lad was fourth in the first half of the qualifying session, but fell back down to grid, as he wan unable to improve on his best lap of 1’42.842.

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