Aragon WSBK: Sykes on pole, Yamahas complete front row
Kawasaki's Tom Sykes took pole position for the upcoming World Superbike races at Aragon, while factory Yamaha riders Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes made up the front row.
Tom Sykes, Kawasaki Racing Team
None of the trio were out front early on, as the first set of flying laps in Superpole 2 produced an unexpected leader in Althea BMW's Jordi Torres, who had fought his way up through Superpole 1 a few minutes earlier.
And while the Spaniard would soon be surpassed by the Ducati of Chaz Davies, Torres remained second at the halfway point, just a tenth off provisional pole.
The status quo out front remained until the final laps but, just as Honda's Michael van der Mark fell after sliding on the kerbs with two minutes remaining, the riders started to improve en masse.
With mere seconds left until the chequered flag, Sylvain Guintoli - another rider to advance from SP1 - went to the top of the timing screens, giving Yamaha faint hope of an early pole in its return campaign.
However, that hope was dashed by the Kawasaki of Tom Sykes, who went two tenths clear at the chequered, taking his second pole of the season and setting the new Aragon lap record in WSBK.
Guintoli did get to settle for second, with Lowes completing a superb qualifying effort for Yamaha in third.
Davies ended up fourth, with he and teammate Davide Giugliano split by championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) on row two.
MV Agusta's Leon Camier was seventh ahead of Torres and Xavi Fores (Barni Ducati), with Nicky Hayden pipping his Honda teammate van der Mark to 10th at the chequered flag and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) making up the order in SP2.
Qualifying results
Pos. | Rider | Bike | SP1 | SP2 |
1 | Tom Sykes | Kawasaki | 1:49.374 | |
2 | Sylvain Guintoli | Yamaha | 1:50.482 | 1:49.583 |
3 | Alex Lowes | Yamaha | 1:49.708 | |
4 | Chaz Davies | Ducati | 1:49.909 | |
5 | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 1:50.003 | |
6 | Davide Giugliano | Ducati | 1:50.316 | |
7 | Leon Camier | MV Agusta | 1:50.360 | |
8 | Jordi Torres | BMW | 1:50.352 | 1:50.390 |
9 | Javier Fores | Ducati | 1:50.538 | |
10 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 1:50.551 | |
11 | Michael van der Mark | Honda | 1:50.744 | |
12 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 1:50.958 | |
13 | Markus Reiterberger | BMW | 1:50.938 | |
14 | Roman Ramos | Kawasaki | 1:51.560 | |
15 | Karel Abraham | BMW | 1:52.052 | |
16 | Alex de Angelis | Aprilia | 1:52.173 | |
17 | Matteo Baiocco | Ducati | 1:52.246 | |
18 | Joshua Brookes | BMW | 1:52.443 | |
19 | Sylvain Barrier | Kawasaki | 1:53.169 | |
20 | Mathieu Lussiana | BMW | 1:54.042 | |
21 | Dominic Schmitter | Kawasaki | 1:54.569 | |
22 | Saeed Al Sulaiti | Kawasaki | 1:54.719 | |
23 | Peter Sebestyen | Yamaha | 1:55.444 | |
24 | Joshua Hook | Kawasaki | 1:56.023 | |
25 | Imre Toth | Yamaha | 1:57.217 |
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