Superpole Donington: Sykes flies over his opponents

Winner of the last six rounds of WSBK contested at Donington Park, "Major Tom" Sykes will be hard to stop in the race this afternoon and tomorrow: in qualifying, he turned almost a second faster than his competitors…

Winner of the last six rounds of WSBK contested at Donington Park, "Major Tom" Sykes will be hard to stop in the race this afternoon and tomorrow: in qualifying, he turned almost a second faster than his competitors…

Tom Sykes is on course to continue his impressive winning streak in Great Britain. This morning during the last "run" of SP2 (second and last phase of the Superpole), the Ninja n ° 66 blew up the track record, which he himself set last year….

Taking advantage of ideal driving conditions – bright sunshine, 15 ° in the air and 27 ° on the dry track -, "Major Tom" and his Kawasaki rocket covered the 4023 meters of the Donington Park circuit in just 1 ‘26.712 (against 1 ‘27,071 last year).

Unbeatable at practice Friday, invincible in the race since 2013 (!), Sykes has every chance of pocketing the 50 points at stake this weekend. These will not be too many to bridge the current gap between him and the leader in the championship: Rea has 70 points more than him !

Tonight, moreover, the first half of the 2016 championship will be over. Nine tenths of a second slower than Sykes in qualifying (!), Chaz Davies nevertheless won 2nd place on "his" British grid and also hopes to nibble a few points on the "Number One" in the world.

Let us underline in passing that the n ° 7 Ducati does not fare so badly … Indeed, the unfortunate one was very "hot in the buttocks" yesterday: his Panigale ignited at the beginning of the FP2 because of a defective hose, causing it to lose almost all of the rolling.

If the outrageous domination of Sykes makes fear two solo victories, the group shot of his four pursuers gives hope for fierce battles for the other two steps of the podium: "Chazie" and his teammate Davide Giugliano (5th time) are only separated three hundredths of a second !

Between the two official Ducatis are therefore inserted two motorcycles. The first is quite surprising: on his Aprilia n ° 32, Lorenzo Savadori reaches for the first time the first row of the World SBK grid. Defending STK1000 champion relegates world champion Jonathan Rea Himself to second.

After finishing the first day just four tiny hundredths of a second behind his team-mate, Rea fell back heavily in qualifying. ‘ "The ruthless JR" may not be able to play for victory today … Too bad, he will focus on the championship by targeting the Top3 … which he has not missed since the start of the season !

Unlike "Johnny", is still in search of his first podium this season … The "Spanish Elvis" who wiggles better and better on his BMW Althea, completes the second row of the grid. He will have to accelerate the movement to catch the leading pack.

Winner of the second WSBK round at Sepang, Nicky Hayden dominates a 100% Anglo-Saxon third place. The "Kentucky Legend" and his Fireblade are ahead of Leon Camier on the only MV Agusta on the field, as well as Cameron Beaubier, replacing Sylvain Guintoli on the official Yamaha.

The hopes of the Yamaha Pata team rest only on the shoulders of the United States champion: Alex Lowes was able to participate in the first free practice session yesterday morning, but was declared unfit after a medical check. Like Sylvain, Alex has three weeks to restore his health…

Like Hayden, Xavi Fores went through the SP1 draft. The rider of the private team Ducati Barni will finally start from 10th place, ahead of Karel Abraham, who qualified directly in SP2 but suffered a fall which prevented him from appearing higher on the grid..

Third in SP1 – therefore deprived of SP2 – Michael van den Mark took advantage of Lowes’ package to complete fourth place. We expected a little better from the 2014 Supersport world champion on this undulating English track. The final portion of the circuit – added in 1995 for GP homologation – is it too "Stop & Go" for its Honda ?

A small disappointment also for the reigning British Superbike champion Josh Brookes: the Australian knows the circuit by heart, just like his Milwaukee team (English), but their experience last year on the R1 probably does not allow them to settle perfectly their new S1000RR…

Sylvain Barrier’s replacement in the Kawasaki Pedercini team, Anthony West, fell during SP1 but was able to return to the pits and start the attack again just before his little fellows started their second outing. The n ° 13 finally takes 17th place on the grid.

Finally, let us underline the presence this weekend of Matthieu Lussiana: the Brazilian champion has a new "wild card" at Donington Park. He will soon place – and tomorrow for the second round – the S1000RR of his BMW ASPI team in 20th place on the grid. Stay connected !

Superpole World Superbike Donington Park 2016

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