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Qualifying report

Jerez WSBK: Redding grabs first pole, Lowes crashes

Scott Redding snatched his maiden World Superbike pole by 0.034 seconds from Jonathan Rea at Jerez, while championship leader Alex Lowes was 14th after a crash.

Scott Redding, Aruba.it Racing Ducati

Scott Redding, Aruba.it Racing Ducati

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Toprak Razgatlioglu set the pace early in the 25-minute session on the race tyre, with the Yamaha rider going half a second clear of the field with a 1m39.208s.

Initially leading his Yamaha teammate Michael van der Mark, who topped FP3, reigning champion Jonathan Rea cut Razgatlioglu’s advantage down to three tenths on the Kawasaki. 

The sister factory Kawasaki of Lowes had his session interrupted by a low-speed off at the last corner just four minutes into the session, which meant he was only 18th after the first runs had been completed.

Lowes wouldn’t be able to recover much on his qualifying tyre run late in the session and could only manage 14th.

Honda’s Leon Haslam made the first big move on the Q tyre in the final five minutes, lifting his Fireblade up to third briefly.

Moments later, Tom Sykes began lighting up the timing screen on his Q tyre lap on the BMW and converted that pace into provisional pole with a 1m38.776s. 

Looking relatively comfortable with a half-second advantage, Sykes’ hopes of back-to-back poles in 2020 were soon dashed as Redding came through on the Ducati. 

The reigning British Superbike champion edged ahead of Sykes with a 1m38.736s, though this wasn’t safe as Rea set fastest sector times on his first Q tyre lap.

The Kawasaki lost 0.011s relative to Redding in sector three, and bled a tiny bit more time through the final split to end up 0.034s behind with a 1m38.770s. 

Rea set off on a final attempt and was fastest through the first two splits. However, he lost half a second through the third split and called a halt to his charge, leaving Redding to claim his first pole in the series.

Sykes held onto a front row spot in third, 0.040s off Redding, with van der Mark heading row two on the Yamaha.

Razgatlioglu’s Q tyre lap was blighted by traffic and he aborted the run with a couple of minutes remaining in the session. The Turkish rider will start fourth ahead of Friday pacesetter Ten Loris Baz on the Ten Kate Yamaha, while Chaz Davies (Ducati), Alvaro Bautista (Honda), Haslam and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Go Eleven Ducati) complete the top 10.

Leandro Mercado crashed his Motocorsa Ducati midway through the session, wrecking the bike in a fast off at Turn 4. He’ll start 20th in Race 1 this afternoon behind the returning Marco Melandri on the Barni Ducati. 

Qualifying results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'38.736
2 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'38.770 0.034
3 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 1'38.776 0.040
4 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 1'38.998 0.262
5 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'39.208 0.472
6 76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 1'39.214 0.478
7 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 1'39.568 0.832
8 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'39.598 0.862
9 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'39.655 0.919
10 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'39.656 0.920
11 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'39.685 0.949
12 11 Germany Sandro Cortese
Kawasaki 1'39.869 1.133
13 64 Italy Federico Caricasulo
Yamaha 1'39.902 1.166
14 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'39.980 1.244
15 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'40.141 1.405
16 12 Spain Xavi Fores
Kawasaki 1'40.162 1.426
17 77 Chile Maximilian Scheib
Kawasaki 1'40.403 1.667
18 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Aprilia 1'40.425 1.689
19 33 Italy Marco Melandri
Ducati 1'40.665 1.929
20 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Ducati 1'41.013 2.277
21 20 France Sylvain Barrier
Ducati 1'41.323 2.587
22 63 Italy Lorenzo Gabellini
Honda 1'41.576 2.840
23 13 Japan Takumi Takahashi
Honda 1'42.357 3.621

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