A setup breakthrough in the final World Superbike free practice session at Phillip Island gave Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea enough to bag pole position for the first time of asking for his new employers and the fifth of his career.
The Isle of Man resident, like much of the top ten, didn’t get to use a qualifying tyre as Superpole two was cut short by David Salom’s crash. Both Chaz Davies and Nico Terol went faster than Rea but their times were set under red flags and so disqualified.
“I am really happy with pole position because it is the best possible result from qualifying. I also wanted the chance to use the qualifying tyre, however, because I know the Kawasaki uses the Q tyres very well too. So the lap time could have been quite good. But, this is still the best possible result for me after Superpole,” said Rea, speaking bikesportnews.com at Phillip Island.
Rea posted his lap time on a race tyre and like the rest of pack of the angry wolves; Rea was set to make another lap on a qualifying tyre.
Looking at the times ahead tomorrow’s curtain raiser, Rea was just 0.026sec ahead of Ducati’s Davies . So tomorrow’s race could almost be like a Moto3 affair if any of the times are to go about.
However, Rea disagrees with that little idea about the race being like a Moto3 race. “I don’t think the race will be like that. I think the top five or six guys have got a bit of a different pace. However I think the first past of the race will be very exciting, and the last part of the race, not so exciting for some.”
