Qualifying report

World Superbike Aragon

Aragon WSBK: Melandri shades Rea by 0.031s for pole

Marco Melandri pinched World Superbike pole position away from Jonathan Rea by just 0.031 seconds at Aragon, while Ducati teammate Chaz Davies will start Saturday's race 11th after a late fall.

Lewis Duncan

Edited: Apr 14, 2018, 11:55 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Marco Melandri, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team takes pole position

Marco Melandri, Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing, Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Xavi Fores, Barni Racing Team

Jordi Torres, MV Agusta Reparto Corse

Leon Camier, Honda WSBK Team

Rea set the benchmark on his Kawasaki on his first race tyre lap, a 1m50.075s, while KRT teammate Tom Sykes was only eighth after his opening efforts.

Davies also suffered a low-key start to qualifying, and was 11th as he started his qualifying tyre run. However, he was unable to lift himself up any further after crashing at Turn 2 with three minutes on the clock.

Just moments later, MV Agusta's Jordi Torres edged ahead of Rea's initial laptime with a 1m50.055s, though the Spaniard's time at the top of the timesheets did not last as Melandri streaked clear with a 1m49.543s.

Rea put the Italian under threat, but just missed out on a 1m49.574s, while Sykes – who crashed in FP4 this morning – completed the top three.

Xavi Fores guided his Barni Ducati to fourth, heading the Yamaha duo of Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, who were split by just 0.010s.

Torres slipped to the head of row three in seventh at the chequered flag, with SP1 graduate Michael Ruben Rinaldi eighth for his WSBK debut.

Honda's Leon Camier was ninth, the Briton heading a trio of late crashers in Lorenzo Savadori, Davies and Russian wildcard Vladimir Leonov, who followed Rinaldi through SP1.

Jake Gagne came close to making it two Ten Kate Hondas in SP2 after going second quickest in the closing stages of SP1, but the American was shuffled out of the progression places by Rinaldi's final effort of 1m50.568s, and will start 13th ahead of Milwaukee Aprilia stand-in Davide Giugliano and Leandro Mercado.

Puccetti Kawasaki's Toprak Razgatlioglu was almost a second off of the pace of former European Superstock 1000 sparring partner Rinaldi in SP1, and will launch from 16th, with PJ Jacobsen and Roman Ramos joining him on row six.

Althea BMW's Loris Baz led the SP1 time when the field began their second runs, but the Frenchman was left stranded in 19th after a crash at Turn 2.

SP2 times:

Pos.#RiderBikeTimeGap 1 33 italy Marco Melandri Ducati 1'49.543 2 1 united_kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'49.574 0.031 3 66 Tom Sykes Kawasaki 1'49.644 0.101 4 12 spain Xavi Fores Ducati 1'49.667 0.124 5 22 Alex Lowes Yamaha 1'49.853 0.310 6 60 netherlands Michael van der Mark Yamaha 1'49.863 0.320 7 81 spain Jordi Torres MV Agusta 1'50.055 0.512 8 21 italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'50.197 0.654 9 2 united_kingdom Leon Camier Honda 1'50.607 1.064 10 32 italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1'50.809 1.266 11 7 Chaz Davies Ducati 1'51.065 1.522 12 5 russia Vladimir Leonov Kawasaki 1'53.033 3.490

SP1 times:

Pos.#RiderBikeTimeGap SP2 21 italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'50.568 SP2 5 russia Vladimir Leonov Kawasaki 1'51.294 0.726 13 45 united_states Jake Gagne Honda 1'51.609 1.041 14 34 italy Davide Giugliano Aprilia 1'51.632 1.064 15 36 argentina Leandro Mercado Kawasaki 1'51.718 1.150 16 54 turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Kawasaki 1'51.777 1.209 17 99 Patrick Jacobsen Honda 1'51.832 1.264 18 40 spain Roman Ramos Kawasaki 1'51.845 1.277 19 76 france Loris Baz BMW 1'51.867 1.299 20 68 colombia Yonny Hernandez Kawasaki 1'51.961 1.393 21 37 czech_republic Ondrej Jezek Yamaha 1'53.349 2.781

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Aragon WSBK: Melandri edges Rea in Friday practice

Next article Aragon WSBK: Rea beats Ducatis in red-flagged race

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

"Two steps forward, one step back" – Oscar Piastri explains the route out of McLaren's car woes

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

19 min

"Two steps forward, one step back" – Oscar Piastri explains the route out of McLaren's car woes

Denny Hamlin proud of season despite another likely missed title

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

1 h

Denny Hamlin proud of season despite another likely missed title

Max Verstappen jokes about Daniel Ricciardo's Le Mans ambition: "He's a smart man picking me!"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

Max Verstappen jokes about Daniel Ricciardo's Le Mans ambition: "He's a smart man picking me!"

Alex Albon dismisses Fernando Alonso criticism: 'F1 has no more pay drivers'

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

2 h

Alex Albon dismisses Fernando Alonso criticism: 'F1 has no more pay drivers'

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts