Magny-Cours WSBK: Sykes denies Rea pole with lap record

World champion-elect Rea held top spot for almost the entirety of the second Superpole session a Ducati and was 0.9s clear of the field before Sykes usurped him with his final effort.

Rea was four tenths faster than anyone else after his first lap on race rubber with a 1m36.726s, though Sykes was able to keep the Ulsterman honest by going just two tenths slower moments later.

First out on circuit on qualifying rubber, Rea demolished Sykes' old lap record with a 1m35.843s, which put him almost a second clear of everyone else and saw him retreat to pitlane for the closing moments.

Milwaukee Aprilia's Lorenzo Savadori proved Rea's closest challenger as the session entered its dying seconds, but was some eight tenths shy.

However, Sykes began to light up the timing screens on his final Q-tyre lap, pulling back several hundredths on his KRT stablemate through the first three sectors.

Sykes maintained his advantage across the line to go 0.147s clear with a 1m35.696s to claim his fifth pole of the 2018 season.

Savadori qualified on the front row in third despite smashing his bike to bits in a heavy FP4 crash this morning, while Barni Racing's Xavi Fores was top Ducati runner at the head of row two in fourth.

Alex Lowes will launch from fifth on the first of the Yamahas, with Chaz Davies in sixth heading sister Aruba Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi – who also crashed in FP4 – while Marco Melandri could only muster 12th.

Home hero Loris Baz put his Althea BMW eighth, with SP1 graduates Toprak Razgatlioglu and Leon Camier sandwiching the Yamaha of Michael van der Mark.

On pole two weeks ago in Portugal, Milwaukee Aprilia's Eugene Laverty was caught out in the closing moments of SP1 by late improvements from Camier and Razgatlioglu.

Opting against a final run the final minutes, Laverty will have to start race one from 13th, with the sister Honda of Jake Gagne alongside him after the American missed out on progressing to SP2 by just two tenths.

Yonny Hernandez's Pedercini replacement Jeremy Guarnoni will start from 19th on his customer ZX-10RR, while fellow French rider and wildcard Matthieu Lussiana is a doubt for race one, having encountered yet more technical issues with his Dreamteamcompany Aprilia in Superpole which left him unable to set a laptime.

Session results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	km/h
1	66	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	1'35.696		165.937
2	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'35.843	0.147	165.683
3	32	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	1'36.564	0.868	164.446
4	12	Xavi Fores	Ducati	1'36.613	0.917	164.362
5	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	1'36.765	1.069	164.104
6	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1'36.954	1.258	163.784
7	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'36.999	1.303	163.708
8	76	Loris Baz	BMW	1'37.055	1.359	163.614
9	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Kawasaki	1'37.103	1.407	163.533
10	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	1'37.239	1.543	163.304
11	2	Leon Camier	Honda	1'37.398	1.702	163.038
12	33	Marco Melandri	Ducati	1'37.595	1.899	162.709
13	50	Eugene Laverty	Aprilia	1'37.617	1.921	162.672
14	45	Jake Gagne	Honda	1'37.747	2.051	162.456
15	81	Jordi Torres	MV Agusta	1'38.129	2.433	161.823
16	36	Leandro Mercado	Kawasaki	1'38.176	2.480	161.746
17	99	PJ Jacobsen	Honda	1'38.878	3.182	160.597
18	40	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	1'39.188	3.492	160.095
19	11	Jeremy Guarnoni	Kawasaki	1'39.490	3.794	159.610
20	96	Jakub Smrz	Yamaha	1'39.713	4.017	159.253
21	121	Matthieu Lussiana	Aprilia