WSBK Aragon: Sykes in Superpole ahead of Baz and Guintoli

Tom Sykes and his ZX-10R have just won their first Superpole 2014 on the Aragon circuit in Spain. World Superbike number one ahead of Kawasaki teammate Loris Baz and championship leader Sylvain Guintoli on Aprilia RSV4. And 20 for Sykes! The reigning world champion signed his twentieth pole position in World this afternoon …

Tom Sykes and his ZX-10R have just won their first Superpole 2014 on the Aragon circuit in Spain. World Superbike number one ahead of Kawasaki teammate Loris Baz and championship leader Sylvain Guintoli on Aprilia RSV4.

And 20 for Sykes! The reigning world champion signed his twentieth pole position in World Superbike this afternoon, completing the 5.344 km of the Aragon circuit in 1 ‘56.479 on the handlebars of his official ZX-10R, two tenths of a second faster than his teammate Loris Baz.

Our "Green Giant" nevertheless gave everything: while his own Kawasaki was sorely lacking in stability on the two – very – heavy braking of the Spanish track, the n ° 76 perfectly negotiated the many sequences that make up the rest of the long and technical trace.

Baz finally secured a superb second place on the grid, ahead of his – our! – compatriot Sylvain Guintoli, third fastest time in Superpole 2 on the handlebars of his factory Aprilia. At the head of the championship (ahead of Bazooka!), "Guinters" will thus be able to score closely the n ° 1 during the two races of tomorrow….

The second place is led by Davide Giugliano and his 1199 Panigale ("R" and not Superleggera!). The Italian will take the start just ahead of two Britons: an impressive Jonathan Rea (Honda Pata) on Friday and to watch Sunday and a slightly less confident Chaz Davies…

The Welshman indeed had to surrender a little earlier than his comrades in Superpole 2 because of a "lowside" beast: a loss from the front, less impressive than a loss from the rear (which frequently leads at a "highside") but just as crippling in terms of the chrono !

Best time of the test session this Saturday morning, Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing) only clinched 7th place on the grid. He will be accompanied on the third row by the two Suzuki Voltcom Crescent riders Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes, whose Gex lack a bit of engine to compete in the long back straight..

The unfortunate Leon Haslam was ejected by his CBR1000RR SP on his warm-up lap in SP2 and was unable to register a single time during this final qualifying event … No.91 automatically inherits 12th place on the grid, behind Toni Elias and Leon Camier.

Before this intense Superpole 2, Superpole 1 had been disturbed by the breakage of Jeremy Guarnoni’s Kawasaki (MRS Evo) in the middle of the straight. The confusion had been amplified by the presence on the edge of the track of a crooked sign! The red flag waved, the pilots could not reach the track until 3.30 p.m….

Big loser of this session, Niccolo Canepa thought he could join Superpole 2 thanks to his very good time (1 ‘59,255) which placed him second behind Toni Elias and his RSV4 Factory. But it was counting without Leon Camier !

Sylvain Barrier’s replacement has indeed stolen the last ticket for SP2 thanks to a final cannon lap at the controls of the BMW Italia S1000RR Evo, completed 8 thousandths (eight!) Faster than the Italian and his Panigale Evo, finally qualified in 13th place.

David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team Evo) completes the fifth place with a certain Ayrton Badovini, Ducati rider in 2013 who participates in his first WSBK 2014 event within the new Bimota Alstare team, registered in the Evo subcategory.

Entered in the Superbike category, the only F4RR on the grid, piloted by Claudio Corti (MV Agusta Yakhnich), took 16th place. The beautiful Italian is followed by the ZX-10R Evo from South African Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki Iron Barin Grillini) and the second BB3 from Christian Iddon.

Barely beaten by Michel Fabrizio in the third free practice session, Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Mahi) had to be content with 21st place on the Spanish grid. The French n ° 9 will start behind the unlucky n ° 11 – French also! – Jeremy Guarnoni and n ° 84 Michel Fabrizio.

The two ZX-10Rs of Luca Scassa and Alessandro Andreozzi (Kawasaki Pedercini Evo) will start from the eighth row, followed by the S1000RR of Imre Toth (BMW Toth Evo). The ninth row will consist of the two 1190RXs of Aaron Yates and Geoff May (Erik Buell Racing) and the second BMW Toth Evo driven by Peter Sebestyen.

The start of the first Superbike race will be given tomorrow at 10:30 am. To follow all the action almost directly, there is only one solution: stay connected to the Site ! 

Superpole World Superbike Aragon 2014

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