Qualifying report
World Superbike Donington Park
Donington WSBK: Rea leads Kawasaski 1-2 in qualifying
Jonathan Rea claimed his second pole position of the 2022 World Superbike season at Donington Park, leading Alex Lowes in a Kawasaki 1-2 in qualifying.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Jul 16, 2022, 3:17 PM
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Having already put on a dominant show in front of his home fans in Friday practice, Rea was again untouchable in the Superpole shootout as he led the order from start to finish, eventually beating Lowes by almost three tenths of a second.
The Ulsterman set the early pace in the 20-minute session with a 1m26.657s, with Scott Redding emerging as his nearest challenger in the first half of the session with a new swingarm on his BMW.
Redding was expected to give Rea a close fight as they returned to the track close to each other for their final runs, with the former taking advantage of the Kawasaki rider’s slipstream to boost his hopes of securing a first front row start with BMW.
But undeterred by Redding’s tactics, Rea lowered the lap record to a 1m26.230s on his first effort before going even quicker still on his final tour, sealing pole position with a best time of 1m26.080s.
It was Lowes who emerged as a surprise second in qualifying, equalling his best starting position of the season with a last-gasp attempt of 1m26.353s.
Reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) was also one of the late improvers, with his final time of 1m26.506s moving him up to third and ahead of Redding, who missed out on a spot on the front row by just 0.008s
Championship leader Alvaro Bautista was never in the fight for pole on a track where Ducati hasn’t won since 2011, qualifying a disappointing fifth with a time that was 0.656s slower than Rea’s.
Bautista’s teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi ended up a further three tenths behind in sixth, just ahead of the Honda of Iker Lecuona and top satellite rider Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha), who topped third practice earlier on Saturday morning.
Gerloff beat the second factory Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli, while the top 10 was rounded out by Axel Bassani on the Motocorsa Ducati.
Reigning British Superbike champion Tarran Mackenzie qualified a respectable 13th with a best time of 1m27.670s on his McAMS Yamaha, while Isle of Man TT winner Peter Hickman ended up a disappointing 22nd out of 26 riders on his wildcard FHO BMW entry.
Qualifying results:
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 65 Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'26.080 2 22 Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'26.353 0.273 3 1 Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'26.506 0.426 4 45 Scott Redding
BMW 1'26.514 0.434 5 19 Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 1'26.736 0.656 6 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'27.011 0.931 7 7 Iker Lecuona
Honda 1'27.038 0.958 8 31 Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'27.100 1.020 9 55 Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'27.191 1.111 10 47 Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'27.206 1.126 11 5 Philipp Oettli
Ducati 1'27.336 1.256 12 44 Lucas Mahias
Kawasaki 1'27.390 1.310 13 95 Tarran Mackenzie
Yamaha 1'27.670 1.590 14 76 Loris Baz
BMW 1'27.711 1.631 15 91 Leon Haslam
Kawasaki 1'27.806 1.726 16 97 Xavi Vierge
Honda 1'27.861 1.781 17 36 Leandro Mercado
Honda 1'27.929 1.849 18 37 Illia Mykhalchyk
BMW 1'27.957 1.877 19 2 Roberto Tamburini
Yamaha 1'28.025 1.945 20 50 Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'28.048 1.968 21 35 Hafizh Syahrin
Honda 1'28.141 2.061 22 10 Peter Hickman
BMW 1'28.378 2.298 23 3 Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'28.617 2.537 24 23 Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'28.935 2.855 25 52 Oliver Konig
Kawasaki 1'29.011 2.931 26 29 Luca Bernardi
Ducati 1'29.032 2.952 View full results
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