Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia
Qualifying report

Jerez WSBK: Rea beats Bautista in Superpole by 0.036s

Kawasaki rider Jonathan Rea beat Alvaro Bautista by 0.036 seconds in the World Superbike qualifying at Jerez, the Northern Irishman setting a new series lap record at the Spanish track.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The field spent most of the Superpole session on race-spec tyres, with Yamaha's Alex Lowes and Rea both spending seven minutes each on top.

As the field switched to qualifying tyres in the last five minutes, Lowes first edged ahead of Rea by 0.009s before the latter made a huge improvement, going nearly half a second faster with a 1m38.247s.

Rea's pole position was only in danger from Ducati rider Bautista, who was a couple of hundredths faster before the final sector of the track, but the Spaniard fell just shy of Rea's benchmark.

GRT Yamaha rider Marco Melandri stole third from Lowes, who will be joined on the second row by Kawasaki rider Leon Haslam and his predecessor Tom Sykes (BMW).

Michael van der Mark qualified seventh on the second Yamaha, narrowly outpacing Jordi Torres, who ran off track at Turn 1 after his final lap, but his Pedercini Kawasaki bike was rescued by track workers before it got stuck in the gravel.

The top 10 was completed by Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha), who had a small crash at Turn 6, and Barni Ducati's Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Chaz Davies was a disappointing 12th with Loris Baz qualifying 15th on his and Ten Kate's return to the series, followed by Tommy Bridewell on the GoEleven Ducati.

The three Honda bikes rounded out the order with Yuki Takahashi, who is replacing the injured Leon Camier, being the fastest of them to grab 17th.

Qualifying results:

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 9 1'38.247
2 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 12 1'38.283 0.036
3 Italy Marco Melandri
Yamaha 9 1'38.498 0.251
4 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Yamaha 10 1'38.734 0.487
5 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Kawasaki 8 1'38.762 0.515
6 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 8 1'38.846 0.599
7 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 10 1'38.849 0.602
8 Spain Jordi Torres
Kawasaki 11 1'38.899 0.652
9 Germany Sandro Cortese
Yamaha 9 1'39.077 0.830
10 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 7 1'39.090 0.843
11 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Kawasaki 8 1'39.330 1.083
12 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 13 1'39.649 1.402
13 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Kawasaki 9 1'39.712 1.465
14 Germany Markus Reiterberger
BMW 10 1'39.890 1.643
15 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 10 1'39.999 1.752
16 United Kingdom Tommy Bridewell
Ducati 8 1'40.376 2.129
17 Yuki Takahashi
Honda 11 1'40.738 2.491
18 Italy Alessandro Del Bianco
Honda 6 1'40.747 2.500
19 Japan Ryuichi Kiyonari
Honda 12 1'40.846 2.599

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Jerez WSBK: Bautista leads van der Mark in Friday's running
Next article Jerez WSBK: Bautista dominates as Rea and Lowes collide

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia