Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea recorded the fastest ever two wheel lap of Donington Park in the Tissot Superpole qualifying session for the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship this morning (Saturday).
The Northern Irishman’s lap came with three minutes remaining, and is 0.039s faster than the previous record, set in the same session by the same rider last year.
His lap was also 1.6 seconds faster than anything else seen so far this weekend, with the three free practice sessions all affected to some degree by a damp track surface due to rain.
Rea therefore takes pole position for the first race of the weekend and was just 0.068s faster than Ducati’s championship leader Alvaro Bautista, who was on course to set a quicker lap time in the final moments before crashing out.
Barni Spark Racing Team’s Danilo Petrucci completed the top-three with a late lap of his own, and a couple of tenths faster than Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, with Kawasaki’s local man Alex Lowes just a fraction further behind, having topped the session early on.
Dominique Aegerter ensured two independent riders were inside the top-six, with his GYTR GRT Yamaha just eight thousandths of a second ahead of Razgatlioglu’s teammate Andrea Locatelli.
Tom Sykes’ ROKiT BMW was eighth, though the Brit had his fastest time wiped out and had to settle for eighth ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s Ducati, despite a crash at Goddards, with Garrett Gerloff completing the top-10 for Bonovo Action BMW. The top-10 riders were covered by just over six tenths of a second.
With weather conditions better than at any point so far this weekend, the first laps were already a second faster than the best seen in practice. Lowes set an initial benchmark of 1m26.684s, and after the first flying laps were complete, the top-five were covered by less than a tenth of a second.
Rea took over top spot with six minutes to go, shaving a couple of tenths off Lowes' time, before breaking his own lap record three minutes later. Bautista though had moved into second spot, and was a fraction faster than Rea through the first couple of sectors, only to run wide and crash into the gravel at Coppice.
"Donington have done such a good job with the Tarmac" Rea said. "I felt like we would be much faster but there’s so much grip from the rear tyre and the surface, you can go into the corners much faster.
"I made a few mistakes, but it was clean enough to be on pole position so I’m super happy. New territory for us, starting on pole this year and hopefully it gives me a good chance to get away with the front guys in the race and try and stay there.
"It's difficult to understand tyre consumption, we don’t have full race data to understand where we’re going to be but I’ll roll my sleeves up, get stuck in and see where we come after the race with good data to go into tomorrow."
The first race of the weekend is due to commence at 14.00.
Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Donington Park, Tissot Superpole qualifying result:
1. Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, 1m26.041s
2. Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati, +0.068s
3. Danilo Petrucci, Barni Spark Racing Team, +0.164s
4. Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pata Yamaha Prometon WorldSBK, +0.369s
5. Alex Lowes, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, +0.381s
6. Dominique Aegerter, GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, +0.461s
7. Andrea Locatelli, Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK, +0.469s
8. Tom Sykes, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, +0.483s
9. Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Aruba.it Racing Ducati, +0.523s
10. Garrett Gerloff, Bonovo Action BMW, +0.607s
Click here for full result.
Tickets for the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship at Donington Park are available upon arrival at gate prices all weekend, with free entry for children under-13. For more information, click here.