Aragon WSB: Sykes takes charge in second qualifying, Rea storms to third

Tom Sykes re-asserted his dominance to qualifying at Aragon today by becoming the only man to set a sub 1.58s lap with a 1.57.785 onboard his Kawasaki Superbike. The 27 year old made a few minor set-up changes to his ZX-10R and now looks comfortable on the bike and free of injury following his fractured wrist and ribs sustained in testing at Phillip Island in February.

Aprilia man Eugene Laverty secured second place having run at the front of the session throughout. The big improver of the day was Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea who propelled himself up the leader board to go third fastest. The 26 year old has been a long way behind his rivals due to on-going issues with a new electronics package.

Rea said: “The bike isn’t actually that much different to yesterday. We spent most of the session on old tyres, but with ten minutes to go we used new ones and the bike felt a lot more stable. The lap time I did actually came relatively easily and my net lap was a mid 1.58 which is about as fast as I’ve ever been around Aragon.”

Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam had a disastrous session, crashing out on the first lap. Haslam was uninjured but with extensive damage to his CBR1000RR including swing arm, sub-frame, exhaust system and bodywork his team were unable to re-build the bike in time for him to get back out on track. He did however still qualify for Superpole with his lap time from Friday.

Chaz Davies outperformed his BMW team-mate Marco Melandri again to secure fourth position ahead of a determined Davide Giugliano and an ever improving Sylvain Guintoli.

 

Aragon – FIM Superbike World Championship – Qualifying 2

1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’57.785

2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’58.029

3. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1’58.090

4. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1’58.117

5. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’58.330

6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’58.426

7. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1’58.925

8. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’58.996

9. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’59.379

10. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’59.414

11. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’59.471

12. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1’59.599

13. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1’59.647

14. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 2’00.174

15. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 2’00.370

16. Alexander Lundh (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 2’00.511

17. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 2’00.979

18. Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 2’02.140

19. Mark Aitchison (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 2’02.554

20. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 2’03.201