WSBK Portimao: Rea does it again in Superpole

Two weeks after Magny-Cours, Jonathan Rea has again broken a Cal Crutchlow record! The Honda rider will start tomorrow from pole position on the Portimao circuit, ahead of Checa, Laverty, Melandri and … Guintoli !

Two weeks after Magny-Cours, Jonathan Rea has again broken a Cal Crutchlow record! The Honda rider will start tomorrow from pole position on the Portimao circuit, ahead of Checa, Laverty, Melandri and … Guintoli !

It was from his first lap in the final phase of Superpole that Jonathan Rea posted a time that he knew impossible to beat: 1 ‘41.712, almost four tenths faster than the author of the pole last year, Cal Crutchlow.

First World Superbike rider – first motorcycle rider! – to pass under the bar of "42" in Portimao, the Honda rider rejoices and celebrates his brilliant turn even before knowing if his time will allow him to dominate his adversaries !

A few minutes later, his team can indeed unleash their joy: Checa also fell below 1 ’42, but failed to break the Briton’s new record. The Johnny in question – who will ride next year alongside MotoGP rider Hiroshi Aoyama, it’s official! – therefore wins his second pole of the year.

Checa does not seem disappointed: the n ° 7 is anyway in seventh heaven since the acquisition of his title two weeks ago at Magny-Cours! With his head still in the clouds, the Spaniard shows his state of mind even on his helmet: after turning from blue to black in the middle of the season to express his extreme "concentration" on the title, the decoration of his Xlite is now pure white.

The two Yamaha riders from the field, Laverty and Melandri, will complete the Portuguese front row tomorrow and will try to make the official R1 shine for the last time. After that, Marco and Eugene can look to their future: the Italian on a BMW and the Irish on … an Aprilia? Case to be followed next Tuesday during the first "winter" tests !

Our Sylvain Guintoli hoists his private Ducati in front of that of his teammate Jakub Smrz and will lead the second row when the red lights go out on Sunday. The Effenbert Liberty drivers are one second behind Rea’s best time at the end of Superpole 3. However, we can bet that the gap will be less important in the race. !

Joan Lascorz and Noriyuki Haga, 7th and 8th respectively, are the first representatives of the Kawasaki and Aprilia brands. Only Suzuki is therefore missing in this Top 8 at Portimao: you have to wait for 14th place to find the Alstare team and its n ° 84 GSX-R.

Eliminated at the very end of Superpole 2 by Sylvain Guintoli, Ayrton Badovini qualified in 9th place. The BMW n ° 86 is ahead on the third row of the Kawasaki n ° 66 of Tom Sykes, the official BMW n ° 91 of Leon Haslam and the official Aprilia n ° 2 of Leon Camier.

Maxime Berger is at the head of the fourth row (13th place), after having spent all the free and qualifying sessions juggling between 15th and 16th place. The French rookie will have to continue to hang on in the race in order to score a handful of additional points, and win a handlebars for next year.

Michel Fabrizio, Davide Giugliano – his Ducati Althea team rewards him with his Superstock title by lining up this weekend alongside their other 2011 champion, Carlos Checa – and Mark Aitchison will start behind our national Mad Max.

And the Italian Max in all this? Despite a left foot not quite recovered from his fractured Nurburgring, Biaggi was keen to return to the track. Fifth in the first qualifying session on Friday afternoon, he failed to improve his time in the second qualifying session this morning…

Excluded at the last moment of the Superpole phase by the young Superstock champion Davide Giugliano, the Roman Emperor will have to be content with a distant 17th place on the starting grid tomorrow noon !

The n ° 1 – for two more races – will start in front of Troy Corser and a host of substitutes: Karl Muggeridge on Xaus’ CBR, Javier Fores on Toseland’s S1000RR, Santiago Barragan on Rolfo’s ZX-10R. In their midst, too, wildcard rider Josh Waters on his Suzuki Yoshimura.

Superpole WSBK Portimao 2011 ranking

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