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Jonathan Rea edges Scott Redding for first pole of WSBK season

motorsport22 May 2021 11:20| © Team Talk
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Jonathan Rea © Getty Images

Six-time world superbike champion Jonathan Rea will start from pole in Saturday's opening race of the season at Aragon in Spain.

The most successful World SBK rider in the championship's history quickly picked up where he left off to post the fastest lap time in Saturday's revamped Superpole session - and set a new lap record in the process.

Rea immediately set the fastest time of the weekend at the start of the 15-minute session - a 1m49.314s - which was quickly surpassed by Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes.

But the times would come down even further when the riders returned to the track for a final shot at pole, as Ducati rider Scott Redding dislodged Lowes from the top only for Rea to settle matters with an imperious lap that saw him gain a quarter of a second on his rivals in the third sector alone before beating his own 2020 lap record with a time of 1m48.458s.

Redding ended up 0.275s down in second place, while BMW's Tom Sykes completed the top three with a time of 1m48.840s.

Lowes would ultimately end up in fourth place, 0.432s behind Rea, after failing to improve on his final run, while GoEleven Ducati's Chaz Davies qualified in fifth ahead of Garrett Gerloff, who outpaced his factory rivals as the first Yamaha bike on the grid for GRT.

The Hondas of Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista finished seventh and eighth quickest, with Redding's teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi and PATA Yamaha's Toprak Razgatlioglu rounding out the top 10.

TIMES

1 Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team 1:48.458s
2 Scott Redding GBR Aruba.It Ducati +0.275s
3 Tom Sykes GBR Motorrad BMW WorldSBK Team +0.382s
4 Alex Lowes GBR Kawasaki Racing Team +0.432s
5 Chaz Davies GBR GoEleven Ducati +0.611s
6 Garrett Gerloff USA GRT Yamaha +0.727s
7 Leon Haslam GBR Team HRC +0.788s
8 Alvaro Bautista SPA Team HRC +0.880s
9 Michael Ruben Rinaldi ITA Aruba.It Ducati +1.058s
10 Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR PATA Yamaha +1.246s
11 Tito Rabat SPA Barni Ducati +1.303s
12 Eugene Laverty IRL RC Squadra Corse BMW +1.309s
13 Lucas Mahias FRA Kawasaki Puccetti +1.493s
14 Andrea Locatelli ITA PATA Yamaha +1.504s
15 Michael Van Der Mark NED Motorrad BMW WorldSBK Team +1.731s
16 Kohta Nozane JPN GRT Yamaha +1.977s
17 Christophe Ponsson FRA Gil Yamaha +2.031s
18 Jonas Folger GER Benovo BMW +2.170s
19 Isaac Vinales SPA Orelac Racing Kawasaki +2.214s
20 Axel Bassani ITA Motocorsa Ducati +2.649s
21 Samuele Cavalieri ITA Pedercini Kawasaki +4.259s
22 Leandro Mercardo ARG MIE Honda Racing +4.662s
23 Loris Cresson BEL Pedercini Kawasaki +5.191s

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