Qualifying report
World Superbike Magny-Cours
Magny-Cours WSBK: Haslam takes pole despite fall
Aprilia's Leon Haslam took pole position in a wet qualifying session at Magny-Cours as himself and several other riders crashed in a challenging Superpole 2 session.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Edited: Oct 3, 2015, 2:42 PM
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Haslam pipped newly-crowned champion Jonathan Rea by just 0.004s, the Kawasaki rider staying on his bike but coming up just short with his final attempt.
Ducati's Chaz Davies took the early lead in Superpole 2 on the damp track as Tom Sykes, his rival in the fight for runner-up, fell at Turn 13 and damaged his motorcycle.
Haslam then took over at the top, with Rea moving up to second and looking to take the lead away from his compatriot, but to no avail - coming up short on several attempts.
Davies also looked set to challenge for the top spot, but fell off at Turn 15 when seven tenths up on the pole benchmark.
And the session was subsequently red-flagged with Haslam in the lead when Alex Lowes suffered a heavy crash at Turn 3.
The Briton appeared knocked out for a few brief seconds after the fall, but got up and managed to walk away from the scene.
The session restarted with just less than three minutes on the clock, Haslam and Rea both getting another shot at improving their times.
And while Haslam fell on his final lap, Rea was half a second up after the first sector, only to cross the line 0.004s slower.
Niccolo Canepa was third, taking a second consecutive front row, with Davies in fourth and local rider Sylvain Guintoli taking fifth after quickly recovering from an early fall.
Ducati's replacement rider Luca Scassa was sixth after blitzing his way through Superpole 1, while Leon Camier - who also had to fight through SP1 - took seventh.
Ayrton Badovini was eighth, ahead of Sykes and wildcard Markus Reiterberger, with Lowes and Jordi Torres making up the top 12.
Michael van der Mark was the highest-profile rider to miss the SP1 cut-off and will start the weekend's races in 15th.
Qualifying results:
Pos. Rider Bike Time Gap 1 Leon Haslam Aprilia 1'56.404 2 Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'56.408 0.004 3 Niccolo Canepa Ducati 1'56.912 0.508 4 Chaz Davies Ducati 1'57.049 0.645 5 Sylvain Guintoli Honda 1'57.839 1.435 6 Luca Scassa Ducati 1'57.991 1.587 7 Leon Camier MV Agusta 1'59.768 3.364 8 Ayrton Badovini BMW 2'00.676 4.272 9 Tom Sykes Kawasaki 2'01.144 4.740 10 Markus Reiterberger BMW 2'01.800 5.396 11 Alex Lowes Suzuki 2'02.227 5.823 12 Jordi Torres Aprilia 2'02.379 5.975 13 Matteo Baiocco Ducati 1'59.117 2.713 14 Leandro Mercado Ducati 1'59.446 3.042 15 Michael van der Mark Honda 2'00.528 4.124 16 Pawel Szkopek Yamaha 2'02.809 6.405 17 Gianluca Vizziello Kawasaki 2'03.982 7.578 18 Roman Ramos Kawasaki 2'04.796 8.392 19 Randy de Puniet Suzuki 2'06.621 10.217 20 David Salom Kawasaki 1'39.738 21 Christophe Ponsson Kawasaki 1'41.249 22 Gabor Rizmayer BMW 1'41.961 23 Alex Phillis Kawasaki 1'42.823 24 Imre Toth BMW 1'43.953
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