WSB: Sykes breaks Corser's record with Donington pole

Tom Sykes will start on pole position for this afternoon’s opening World Superbike race after shattering Troy Corser’s all-time pole record at Donington Park.

Now with 44 pole positions to his name, Sykes came within a whisker of his circuit record with a time of 1’26.663 to beat team-mate Rea to the top spot in SP2 by 0.293 seconds.

Loris Baz took an impressive third for Althea BMW and will complete the front row, ahead of Lorenzo Savadori on the Milwaukee Aprilia.

Alex Lowes will start fifth ahead of team-mate Michael van der Mark and the second Milwaukee Aprilia of Eugene Laverty.

The Puccetti Kawasaki of Toprak Razgatlioglu starts eighth ahead of Chaz Davies with Ducati continuing to struggle while wildcard Brad Ray bagged tenth place as he makes his debut on the World Superbike grid.

Leon Haslam will start 11^th on the second Puccetti Kawasaki ahead of Marco Melandri.

Luke Mossey starts 16^th for Pedercini Kawasaki as he too makes his WSB debut with Gino Rea and Mason Law 23^rd and 25^th respectively.