Superpole Phillip Island: Ninja Rea takes pole

The new rookie of the official Kawasaki World Superbike team, Jonathan Rea, has just won in the first Superpole event of the 2015 season. Chaz Davies was unlucky but will start in second position ahead of Leon Haslam… It was particularly hot this afternoon – this very early morning for us French – on the circuit…

The new rookie of the official Kawasaki World Superbike team, Jonathan Rea, has just won in the first Superpole event of the 2015 season. Chaz Davies was unlucky but will start in second position ahead of Leon Haslam…

It was particularly hot this afternoon – this very early morning for us French – on the Phillip Island circuit: more than 30 ° C in the air and 55 ° C on the ground according to the thermometer of the Honda Pata team (!), also the lap times of last year could not be beaten.

A full second above the official record set by Sylvain Guintoli last year, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) still offers himself the first Superpole 2015 and this, from his first participation in the controls of his ZX-10R n ° 65 !

Second less than three hundredths of a second from "Johnny’s" time, Chaz Davies (Ducati Aruba) may have some regrets: his time under 1 ’31 at four minutes from the end of the session appeared on the monitors, but he has not been validated.

As the n ° 7 Panigale R completed its cannon lap, the red flag was waved following David Salom’s fall in the last corner. Beaten by nothing in qualifying, "Chazie" hopes to have more luck tomorrow during the two races…

Best time in free practice, Leon Haslam (Aprilia Red Devil) was again the fastest at the opening of the pit lane in the final phase of the Superpole (SP2, which includes as a reminder the top 10 drivers in free practice , and the two best of SP1). In the end, n ° 91 closes the first line.

Fourth fastest in the last qualifying session, the reigning Supersport world champion Michael van den Mark (Honda Pata) once again shows that he is very comfortable on a Superbike. Double winner of the Suzuka 8 Hours on the Fireblade (with Haslam), the n ° 60 will race for a double podium at Philip Island. Even more if affinities !

At the top of the timesheet on Friday, Alex Lowes (Suzuki Voltcom Crescent) took 5th place on the grid. The English n ° 22 will start in front of another "rookie" in the SBK category: Nico Terol, impressive on the handlebars of his private Panigale (Ducati Althea).

Like the Welshman Davies, the Spanish driver Terol could have claimed a better place on the grid (1st row ?!) but the red flag decided otherwise. It will be necessary to watch this n ° 18 … as well as the n ° 81 of his compatriot Jordi Torres, 7th time on the second RSV4 RF of the Red Devils team.

World champions Tom Sykes (2013) and Sylvain Guintoli (2014) must respectively be content with 8th and 9th places on the Australian "grill". In 4th row will be installed Matteo Baiocco (Ducati Althea), David Salom (Kawasaki Pedercini, hoping that his fall has not damaged him too much) and Leandro Mercardo (Ducati Barni, but the n ° 36 could however be relegated last place to have used two soft erasers in SP1 …).

Eliminated from SP2 by Baiocco and Mercado, Randy de Puniet (Suzuki Voltcom Crescent) will start tomorrow from 13th place. Our international n ° 14 will place his GSX-R1000 in front of the Panigale n ° 21 of Mister Troy Bayliss (replacement of Giugliano at Ducati Aruba) and the F4 of Leon Camier (MV Agusta).

Second fastest time in SP1 behind Mercado for more than 13 minutes (out of 15!), Guest driver Jed Metcher finally obtained 16th place on the grid. The Australian will post his Ninja in front of Niccolo Canepa’s 1190RX (EBR Hero) and Sylvain Barrier’s S1000RR (BMW Italia).

The third and last local driver Matthew Walters, who exceptionally has a Kawasaki prepared by Lucio Pedercini’s men, takes 9th time in SP1 and will therefore start from 19th place, ahead of Roman Ramos (Kawasaki Go Eleven).

Author of the 21st time at the end of the first three free practice sessions, three big seconds from the best time posted by Leon Haslam on Saturday morning – and one small second from Ramos’ 20th time -, Santiago Barragan (Kawasaki Grillini) will complete tomorrow 7th on the Australian grid.

The team manager and second driver of the EBR Hero team, Larry Pegram, will install his 1190 RX at the head of the penultimate row, in front of the other ZX-10R prepared by the Grillini team and piloted by Christophe Ponsson, as well as the S1000RR by Gabor Rizmayer (BMW Toth).

No.75’s teammate and compatriot, Hungarian Imre Toth, will start from the ninth row at the controls of his own S1000RR. Finally, note that exceptionally, due to a trip abroad (to Australia, but to Sydney to try out the new XJR1300 and R1!), Site will not be able to comment directly on the Superbike rounds and Supersport. Stay – all the same – connected !

Superpole World Superbike Phillip Island 2015

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