Cadwell Park British Superbikes: Tom Sykes takes pole in first ever F1-style qualifying

Rizla Suzuki’s Tom Sykes will start from pole position for tomorrow’s races at Cadwell Park after a dominant performance in the first newly formatted qualifying session in British Superbikes.

Sykes could even afford to drop his GSX-R1000 K8 Suzuki at the Chicane and still manage to hold onto the top spot in the final 10-minute period of the F1-style qualification.

The three-part elimination qualifying has been introduced for this weekend for the first time in BSB.

Sykes took the pole with a 1.27.495 in the final 10-minute sprint for pole.

The winner of three of the last four BSB races fought off a spirit effort by HM Plant Honda’s Cal Crtuchlow who missed out by three tenths.

And championship leader Shane Byrne took the final spot on the front row of the grid with three riders per row for this weekend only.

CADWELL PARK BRITISH SUPERBIKES QUALIFYING RESULTS:

1. Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 1.27.495
2. Cal Crtuchlow HM Plant Honda 1.27.716
3. Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 1.27.870
4. Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 1.27.917
5. Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 1.28.428
6. Michael Rutter Noth West 200 Ducati 1.28.502
7. Karl Harris Rob Mac Racing Yamaha 1.28.844
8. Atsushi Watanabe Rizla Suzuki 1.28.860
9. Simon Andrews Lloyds British Jentin Yamaha 1.29.000
10. Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki 1.29.228