Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes has bagged his place on the front row for the finale of the World Superbike season under the floodlights in Qatar. It is not the pole position that he was hoping for, but a clear track was his goal at the start of the race weekend.

The reigning champion was 0.4 seconds off pole-setter, Ducati’s Davide Giugliano best lap but he did enough to hold on to third on the starting grid. Huddersfield’s finest is aiming to get back to back title wins but rival, Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli is only 12 points behind the Yorkshireman, and the Frenchman is also right behind him on the second row.

But Sykes got caught up in a crash involving Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes, and he felt that slowed him down, on what would have been a hot lap, so he had to settle for third fastest, behind his duelling team-mate Loris Baz.

“There are no prizes to be fast on Friday, but our target is tomorrow and we are going in the correct direction and for this I am very happy,” said Sykes at the track.

“In Superpole it was a shame as I was having a nice feeling on the lap until Alex crashed on the Suzuki and really messed my lap up and there was a big cloud of dust and when I came out the other side I didn’t have much track remaining, and it really spoiled my last lap, but my target was the front row, and I am happy with that.”

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