Assen WSBK: Rea on pole, Razgatlioglu second after crash

Kawasaki rider Rea was fastest during Friday practice and from the outset was the rider to beat in the 15-minute Superpole session, as he laid down an early benchmark of 1m34.286s.

The six-time world champion's position appeared even more secure as Yamaha pair Razgatlioglu and Garrett Gerloff both crashed early in the session, while BMW man Tom Sykes suffered a technical issue.

As the session progressed Rea improved to a 1m33.842s to temporarily put himself almost eight tenths clear of the field.

But having been able to recover to the pits after his crash at Turn 16, Razgatlioglu left the pitlane with just over two minutes remaining and had time for a single flying lap, which was good enough to put him second.

The Turkish rider was only 0.186s shy of Rea's pole time, pushing down FP3 pacesetter Scott Redding on the Ducati to third.

Behind Redding, Michael Ruben Rinaldi was fourth on the second of the works Ducatis, ahead of Alex Lowes' Kawasaki and Jonas Folger, who was surprisingly the best of the BMW riders in sixth, his best grid slot to date in WSBK.

Andrea Locatelli was second-best of the Yamaha contingent in seventh ahead of lead Honda man Leon Haslam, Michael van der Mark's BMW and Alvaro Bautista's Honda.

Chaz Davies was a disappointing 13th on the GoEleven Ducati, qualifying behind fellow satellite V4 R users Tito Rabat (Barni) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa).

Sykes made it out of the pits before the end of the session but ran out of time to start a flying lap, leaving him 20th on the grid ahead of the GRT Yamaha of Gerloff.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'33.842
2	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'34.028	0.186
3	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'34.053	0.211
4	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'34.067	0.225
5	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'34.252	0.410
6	94	Jonas Folger	BMW	1'34.336	0.494
7	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'34.375	0.533
8	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	1'34.467	0.625
9	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'34.786	0.944
10	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	1'34.791	0.949
11	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'34.944	1.102
12	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'34.944	1.102
13	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1'35.002	1.160
14	32	Isaac Viñales	Kawasaki	1'35.251	1.409
15	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	1'35.335	1.493
16	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	1'35.558	1.716
17	9	Andrea Mantovani	Kawasaki	1'36.059	2.217
18	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	1'36.076	2.234
19	84	Loris Cresson	Kawasaki	1'37.156	3.314
	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	11'54.377	10'20.535
	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha
View full results