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Estoril WSBK: Rea beats Redding for back-to-back poles

Jonathan Rea made it two pole positions from two events in the 2021 World Superbike season so far as he beat Scott Redding to the top spot in qualifying at Estoril.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Kawasaki man Rea led the opening runs on a 1m36.635s in the 15-minute Superpole session, but it was ex-MotoGP racer Redding that was first to break through the existing lap record when he posted a 1m36.047s aboard his factory Ducati with four minutes to go.

Two minutes later however Rea struck back with a 1m35.876s, which was enough for him to claim the top spot in qualifying for the second weekend in a row.

Alex Lowes made it two Kawasakis on the front row with a time just 0.007s slower than Redding.

Toprak Razgatlioglu had entered the session firmly among the favourites for pole after topping Friday practice, but the Yamaha rider struggled to put a lap together in Superpole.

The Turkish rider salvaged fourth on the grid on his final run, in which he had to force his way by the Go Eleven Ducati of Chaz Davies at the final corner, ending up 0.288s off the pace.

Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) and the top BMW of Tom Sykes completed the second row.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi was again unable to match the pace of Ducati teammate Redding and will start Saturday's opening race from seventh, followed by the RC Squadra Corse BMW of Eugene Laverty and the Puccetti Kawasaki of Lucas Mahias.

Tito Rabat (Barni Ducati) rounded out the top 10, following in the slipstream of Redding for his second run and running spectacularly wide at Turn 1 after crossing the start/finish line.

Honda had a session to forget as Alvaro Bautista could only manage 12th on the grid, behind the second factory Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli, while Leon Haslam was down in 15th.

Davies will start down in 16th after losing time being stood up by Razgatlioglu on his last run.

UPDATE: A number of riders had their best laptimes deleted for not respecting yellow flags at Turn 1 (caused by Rabat's off), including Lowes, who therefore loses his front row grid spot.

Lowes now lines up in 10th place, while Razgatlioglu moves up to third on the grid ahead of Gerloff, Sykes and Rinaldi. Mahias, Rabat and Locatelli now make up the third row.

Laverty likewise lost his best time, slipping to 13th on the grid behind fellow BMW men Jonas Folger and Michael van der Mark, while Bautista has dropped all the way down to 18th.

Qualifying results (before penalties applied):

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'35.876
2 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'36.047 0.171
3 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'36.054 0.178
4 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'36.164 0.288
5 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'36.350 0.474
6 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 1'36.369 0.493
7 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'36.532 0.656
8 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'36.604 0.728
9 44 France Lucas Mahias
Kawasaki 1'36.863 0.987
10 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'36.892 1.016
11 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'37.031 1.155
12 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'37.032 1.156
13 94 Germany Jonas Folger
BMW 1'37.128 1.252
14 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'37.193 1.317
15 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'37.399 1.523
16 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 1'37.422 1.546
17 47 Italy Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'37.501 1.625
18 3 Japan Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'37.611 1.735
19 32 Spain Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 1'38.512 2.636
20 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'38.854 2.978
21 84 Belgium Loris Cresson
Kawasaki 1'40.008 4.132
22 76 Italy Samuele Cavalieri
Kawasaki 1'40.288 4.412

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