5th Superpole for Sykes

World Superbike 2014

maddix park mx

www.motorcycle-usa.com Byron Wilson

Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes took his fifth pole position of the 2014 World Superbike Championship at Magny-Cours. The Kawasaki ace put up the fastest WorldSBK lap ever at the circuit with his late session push, finishing more than two-tenths quicker than the second-fastest rider of the day, Ducati’s Davide Giugliano. Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea rounds out the top-three.

“I always ride a little bit reserved with a race tire in Superpole, especially with the one bike rule in place,” explained Sykes, who suffered an off earlier in the day. “My target today was very clear, however. It is always to get onto the front row at every race, but today I wanted to go for full glory. As soon as I put the qualifying tire in the Ninja ZX-10R was working brilliantly. All of a sudden we were able to put the bike where we wanted on the track a bit more easily and the new best lap time came relatively nicely. I was pushing, of course, and the bike was moving, but at the same time it was working well. Because of that I am very happy.”

Giugliano’s teammate, Chaz Davies, heads up the fourth row followed by Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli in fifth and his teammate, Marco Melandri, in sixth. Both Aprilia pilots were strong during the initial portion of the session, but got bumped down the list as riders picked up the pace on qualifying tires near the end.

Sykes’ teammate, Loris Baz, grabbed seventh position followed by Suzuki teammates Alex Lowes and Eugene Laverty in eighth and ninth, respectively. Rea’s teammate, Leon Haslam, finished in 10th.

The 2014 German Superbike Champion, Xavi Fores, joins the grid this time around as a wildcard entry with Team 3C Racing. He placed 11th-fastest, followed by his teammate and second wildcard entry, Max Neukirchner.

World Superbike Magny-Cours Superpole 2014 
1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’36.366 
2. Davide Giugliano (Ducati) 1’36.593 
3. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1’36.906 
4. Chaz Davies (Ducati) 1’37.021 
5. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) 1’37.184 
6. Marco Melandri (Aprilia) 1’37.190 
7. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) 1’37.215 
8. Alex Lowes (Suzuki) 1’37.270 
9. Eugene Laverty (Suzuki) 1’37.407 
10. Leon Haslam (Honda) 1’37.575 
11. Xavi Fores (Ducati) 1’37.673 
12. Max Neukirchner (Ducati) 1’37.877 
13. Sylvain Barrier (BMW) 1’38.415 
14. Toni Elias (Aprilia) 1’38.621 
15. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) 1’38.883 
16. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati) 1’39.367 
17. David Salom (Kawasaki) 1’39.452 
18. Claudio Corti (MV Agusta) 1’39.518 
19. Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki) 1’39.701 
20. Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) 1’39.850 
21. Jeremy Guarnoni (Kawasaki) 1’40.427 
22. Alessandro Andreozzi (Kawasaki) 1’40.926 
23. Bryan Staring (Kawasaki) 1’41.181 
24. Aaron Yates (EBR) 1’42.406 
25. Imre Toth (BMW) 1’42.470 
26. Gabor Rizmayer (BMW) 1’43.023 
27. Nicolas Salchaud (MV Agusta) 
28. Geoff May (EBR) 1’42.051
 
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