WSBK Imola: Rea hoists his Honda in Superpole

Against all expectations, it is the n ° 65 rider of the Honda Pata team who will post his Fireblade tomorrow in pole position of the first Italian round of the World Superbike 2014. Rea will beat Guintoli on Aprilia and Giugliano on Ducati … It has been three years that a Fireblade had not dominated a Superpole event ! Winners of the last race in Assen…

Against all expectations, it is the n ° 65 rider of the Honda Pata team who will post his Fireblade tomorrow in pole position for the first Italian round of the World Superbike 2014. Rea will beat Guintoli on Aprilia and Giugliano on Ducati…

It had been three years since a Fireblade had dominated a Superpole event! Winners of the last race in Assen, contested on a wet track, Jonathan Rea and his Honda (Pata) again made a strong impression by beating their opponents in the dry at Imola.

The surprise is all the greater as the driver from Northern Ireland has never excelled in the exercise of the Superpole: it is only the fourth of his career, the last going back to Portimao 2011. When he got off his motorcycle, "JR" readily admitted not expecting such success. Good job, Johnny !

A quarter of a second slower than the Tokyo Superbike and separated by only a thousandth of a second, the Aprilia driven by Sylvain Guintoli and the Ducati by Davide Giugliano will complete the first row during the two starts given tomorrow: at 10:30 am and then at 1:10 pm.

The "tifosis" – from Noale as from Bologna – are delighted to see the second place dominated by the other two factory machines "Made in Italy": Chaz Davies (Ducati SBK) and Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing) have beaten all the predictions of the "bookmakers" which gave Tom Sykes winner this Saturday !

The English Maestro and his No.1 Ninja (Kawasaki Racing) turned almost half a second slower than Jonathan Rea and his No.65 Fireblade and ultimately had to settle for sixth place on the grid. But the world champion has certainly not said his last word…

The French clan is also a little disappointed with the seventh place of Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing). The Green Giant will have to spit in the gloves to achieve his goal tomorrow in the race: to get on the podium and stay in contact with Guintoli and Sykes in the championship !

Behind our favorite n ° 76 will be placed the GSX-R1000 n ° 58 of Eugene Laverty (Suzuki Voltcom) and the private 1199 Panigale n ° 59 of Niccolo Canepa (Ducati Althea), first rider of the Evo category, third Ducati rider and third Italian on the grid.

Leon Haslam will start at the head of the 3rd row tomorrow at the controls of the second "Blade" of the Honda Pata team. Sylvain Barrier’s replacement, Leon Camier, qualified in a nice eleventh place on the handlebars of the S1000RR Evo of the BMW Italia team.

Alex Lowes (Suzuki Voltcom) will have to settle for 12th place: "Disgusted", chirped his boss Paul Denning a few seconds before the opening of the pit lane, "Alex will not ride for the Superpole because of a probable problem of gearbox. Only one motorcycle and impossible to solve the problem. Safety first ".

Leading the 2014 Italian Superbike Championship after the opening round at Mugello, Ivan Goi and his Panigale Evo proved they deserved their "wildcard" by securing third fastest time in SP1. The Barni rider will start from 4th row ahead of David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Evo) and Toni Elias (Aprilia Red Devils Roma).

Ayrton Badovini and his unapproved BB3 Evo but allowed to run (!) Secured 16th place on the grid. The Italian will not be able to claim any points tomorrow – and it will be so as long as Bimota and Alstare have not produced 125 copies of the BB3 – but will give everything to integrate the Top 15.

The Italian Luca Scassa (Kawasaki Pedercini Evo) will also be keen to shine in front of his team and will be accompanied on the 6th row by Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki Iron Brain Grillini Evo). Christian Iddon (Bimota Alstare Evo), Michel Fabrizio (Kawasaki Iron Brain Grillini Evo) and Claudio Corti (MV Agusta Yakhnich) will form the 7th row.

Our two other national representatives Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Mahi Evo) and Jeremy Guarnoni (Kawasaki MRS Evo) will install their ZX-10R on the 8th row of the grid. Between the two friends will be the other Ninja of Alessandro Andreozzi (Kawasaki Pedercini Evo).

Preceded by "Jey" by a full second during the third practice session – decisive for establishing order at the back of the grid – the Hungarian driver Imre Toth will place his S1000RR prepared by the BMW Toth team at the head of the 9th rank.

Even though the two 1190RXs of the Erik Buell Racing team were driven 10 km / h for the Evo machines and up to 30 km / h for the best machines (!), Geoff May and Aaron Yates still managed to beat the S1000RR Evo by Peter Sebestyen (BMW Toth) who will start alone from the 10th row.

Superpole World Superbike Assen 2014

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