Jerez WSBK: Redding grabs first pole, Lowes crashes

Toprak Razgatlioglu set the pace early in the 25-minute session on the race tyre, with the Yamaha rider going half a second clear of the field with a 1m39.208s.

Initially leading his Yamaha teammate Michael van der Mark, who topped FP3, reigning champion Jonathan Rea cut Razgatlioglu’s advantage down to three tenths on the Kawasaki. 

The sister factory Kawasaki of Lowes had his session interrupted by a low-speed off at the last corner just four minutes into the session, which meant he was only 18th after the first runs had been completed.

Lowes wouldn’t be able to recover much on his qualifying tyre run late in the session and could only manage 14th.

Honda’s Leon Haslam made the first big move on the Q tyre in the final five minutes, lifting his Fireblade up to third briefly.

Moments later, Tom Sykes began lighting up the timing screen on his Q tyre lap on the BMW and converted that pace into provisional pole with a 1m38.776s. 

Looking relatively comfortable with a half-second advantage, Sykes’ hopes of back-to-back poles in 2020 were soon dashed as Redding came through on the Ducati. 

The reigning British Superbike champion edged ahead of Sykes with a 1m38.736s, though this wasn’t safe as Rea set fastest sector times on his first Q tyre lap.

The Kawasaki lost 0.011s relative to Redding in sector three, and bled a tiny bit more time through the final split to end up 0.034s behind with a 1m38.770s. 

Rea set off on a final attempt and was fastest through the first two splits. However, he lost half a second through the third split and called a halt to his charge, leaving Redding to claim his first pole in the series.

Sykes held onto a front row spot in third, 0.040s off Redding, with van der Mark heading row two on the Yamaha.

Razgatlioglu’s Q tyre lap was blighted by traffic and he aborted the run with a couple of minutes remaining in the session. The Turkish rider will start fourth ahead of Friday pacesetter Ten Loris Baz on the Ten Kate Yamaha, while Chaz Davies (Ducati), Alvaro Bautista (Honda), Haslam and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Go Eleven Ducati) complete the top 10.

Leandro Mercado crashed his Motocorsa Ducati midway through the session, wrecking the bike in a fast off at Turn 4. He’ll start 20th in Race 1 this afternoon behind the returning Marco Melandri on the Barni Ducati. 

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'38.736
2	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'38.770	0.034
3	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	1'38.776	0.040
4	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	1'38.998	0.262
5	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'39.208	0.472
6	76	Loris Baz	Yamaha	1'39.214	0.478
7	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1'39.568	0.832
8	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	1'39.598	0.862
9	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	1'39.655	0.919
10	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'39.656	0.920
11	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	1'39.685	0.949
12	11	Sandro Cortese	Kawasaki	1'39.869	1.133
13	64	Federico Caricasulo	Yamaha	1'39.902	1.166
14	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'39.980	1.244
15	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'40.141	1.405
16	12	Xavi Fores	Kawasaki	1'40.162	1.426
17	77	Maximilian Scheib	Kawasaki	1'40.403	1.667
18	23	Christophe Ponsson	Aprilia	1'40.425	1.689
19	33	Marco Melandri	Ducati	1'40.665	1.929
20	36	Leandro Mercado	Ducati	1'41.013	2.277
21	20	Sylvain Barrier	Ducati	1'41.323	2.587
22	63	Lorenzo Gabellini	Honda	1'41.576	2.840
23	13	Takumi Takahashi	Honda	1'42.357	3.621
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