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Australia

Phillip Island WSBK: Sykes on pole, Bautista crashes

BMW rider Tom Sykes scored his 50th World Superbike career pole position in the opening round of the 2020 season at Phillip Island.

Tom Sykes, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team

Tom Sykes, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team

BMW AG

With five minutes remaining of the first half-hour qualifying session of the new campaign, it was Sykes that was first to attempt a laptime using the qualifying tyre, the Yorkshireman duly jumping to the top of the times with a new lap record of 1m29.230s.

That proved enough to take pole by 0.339s ahead of practice pacesetter and Ducati rookie Scott Redding, while reigning champion Jonathan Rea took the final spot on the front row for Kawasaki, losing out to Redding by just 0.029s.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and Leon Haslam (Honda) amazingly ensured that all five manufacturers on the 2020 grid were represented in the top five places.

Two more Yamaha riders, the works bike of Michael van der Mark and the Ten Kate machine of Loris Baz, were next up, followed by Alex Lowes on the second factory Kawasaki.

Sandro Cortese (Pedercini Kawasaki) and Xavi Fores (Puccetti Kawasaki) made up the top 10, the latter suffering a dramatic loss of bodywork midway through the session which caused the red flags to be shown with 14 minutes to go.

Eugene Laverty couldn't match his BMW teammate's Sykes pace and will start the opening race of the season down in 13th, 1.139s off the pace.

Alvaro Bautista's first qualifying session on a Honda didn't go to plan as the Spaniard suffered a big crash at Lukey Heights with 11 minutes to go.

He ended up 15th, a place ahead of struggling former Ducati teammate Chaz Davies.

Former All-Japan Superbike champion Takumi Takahashi propped up the field on the MIE Honda in 18th, the best part of five seconds off the pace.

Leon Camier (Barni Ducati) has withdrawn from the weekend due to his lingering left shoulder injury sustained in post-season testing at Aragon last year.

Session results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 1'29.230
2 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'29.569 0.339
3 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'29.598 0.368
4 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'29.769 0.539
5 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'29.859 0.629
6 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 1'29.863 0.633
7 76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 1'29.970 0.740
8 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'30.043 0.813
9 11 Germany Sandro Cortese
Kawasaki 1'30.072 0.842
10 12 Spain Xavi Fores
Kawasaki 1'30.222 0.992
11 77 Chile Maximilian Scheib
Kawasaki 1'30.349 1.119
12 64 Italy Federico Caricasulo
Yamaha 1'30.369 1.139
13 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'30.369 1.139
14 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'30.793 1.563
15 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'30.963 1.733
16 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 1'30.966 1.736
17 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'31.227 1.997
18 13 Japan Takumi Takahashi
Honda 1'33.879 4.649

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Edition

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