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Most WSBK: Rea continues perfect 2021 qualifying record

Jonathan Rea continued his perfect qualifying record in the 2021 World Superbike season as he beat title rival Toprak Razgatlioglu to pole position on the series' first visit to the Czech Most circuit.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Kawasaki man Rea left it until the very end of the 15-minute Superpole shootout to grab the top spot with a best time of 1m31.684s on what was his third run of the session.

That put the six-time world champion 0.067s up on the Yamaha of Razgatlioglu, who had taken the provisional top spot with two minutes to go only to see his time toppled by Rea.

It means Rea has taken six poles from a possible six in 2021, giving him the longest pole streak in WSBK since Tom Sykes' similar run in 2013.

Ducati's Scott Redding, who topped third practice earlier in the day, briefly looked like topping the times, as he was fastest in the first two sectors on his penultimate lap - which he lost to a yellow flag - and then fastest in the first three sectors on his last attempt.

But his qualifying tyre couldn't quite hang on for a second full lap and he dropped half a second in the final sector alone, ending up third on the grid behind Rea and Razgatlioglu.

Sykes was fourth-fastest for BMW ahead of the GRT Yamaha of Garrett Gerloff in fifth and the second of the Crescent-run works R1s of Andrea Locatelli.

Leon Haslam was best of the Honda runners in seventh, while the top 10 was completed by Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Ducati), Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Ducati).

Alvaro Bautista could only manage 11th on the second factory Honda, slotting in ahead of the two YART Yamaha wildcards that are using FIM Endurance World Championship-spec bikes: Marvin Fritz and home hero Karel Hanika.

Chaz Davies' struggles continued on the Go Eleven Ducati as he qualified down in 16th, one place ahead of the second BMW of Michael van der Mark.

American rider Jayson Uribe qualified 23rd and last for his first-ever WSBK race on his Pedercini Kawasaki.

Qualifying results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'31.684
2 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'31.751 0.067
3 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'32.158 0.474
4 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 1'32.173 0.489
5 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'32.238 0.554
6 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'32.335 0.651
7 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'32.352 0.668
8 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'32.530 0.846
9 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'32.559 0.875
10 47 Italy Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'32.911 1.227
11 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'32.928 1.244
12 17 Germany Marvin Fritz
Yamaha 1'33.164 1.480
13 98 Czech Republic Karel Hanika
Yamaha 1'33.249 1.565
14 52 Italy Alessandro Del Bianco
Honda 1'33.434 1.750
15 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'33.470 1.786
16 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 1'33.607 1.923
17 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'33.994 2.310
18 3 Japan Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'34.167 2.483
19 32 Spain Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 1'34.280 2.596
20 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'34.444 2.760
21 94 Germany Jonas Folger
BMW 1'34.499 2.815
22 84 Belgium Loris Cresson
Kawasaki 1'35.330 3.646
23 14 United States Jayson Uribe
Kawasaki 1'36.118 4.434

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