Mr Superpole is back as Tom Sykes claimed his 51st pole position in the WorldSBK class at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday morning.
The BMW rider outpaced Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu and Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea to head the title rivals on this afternoon’s front row with a rapid 1’40.408. His first qualifying success since 2020’s visit to Philip Island.
Sykes did a classic wait and pounce lap in Tissot-Superpole to set the new track best at the revised Montmelo circuit right at the end of the session. The Brit’s lap was fully 0.286 seconds faster than the next best rider, Razgatlioglu and over half a second faster than the previous perfect Superpole man-machine in 2021, Rea.
The second row for Race One and the Sunday Superpole race will be headed by Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) from Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and rookie of the season, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx).
A pressurised last lap from Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) saw him make up for losing his previous best lap after - exceeding the track limits - and finally qualify seventh.
A very strong day for the factory bikes saw Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) go eighth fastest and Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) ninth, completing row three of the grid.
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) was the top Independent Rider in tenth place, with Axel Bassani (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) just one position behind. A suddenly improved Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha) was 12th from the 22 riders at Catalunya, one position up on Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven Ducati).
