Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) For the third time in a row he has extremely tough competition in defending his title, but the Northern Irishman has not been naked in Jerez de la Frontera and on Friday he set the fastest time.

Toprak with first pole ahead of Lowes and Rea

Until shortly before the end, Alex Lowes was in provisional pole position in front of his team-mate Jonathan Rea. Toprak Razgatlioglu was actually not on the best time course, but a fast fourth section was enough for the Turkish to intercept the two Kawasaki drivers in the end. The second row is made up of Redding, Rinaldi and Locatelli and behind them, Loris Baz, the replacement driver for Chaz Davies, who is injured like Tom Sykes, will start the race. At the side of the French are the two HRC Hondas in row three. Garrett Gerloff only found himself on P10. The Texan seems to have got out of shape since Assen and has been clearly overshadowed by his brand colleagues Andrea Locatelli and Toprak since then. Leandro Mercado and Axel Bassani will start the first race with him in the afternoon.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) wasn’t dissatisfied after P3, but he has to hope that it won’t get too hot on Saturday afternoon because his bike usually causes problems in such conditions.

BMW without Sykes in the valley of tears – Honda under expectations as well

The loss of the Huddersfield Superpole specialist was to be expected. But to see the best BMW only on P13, that does not really fit the usually very cocky appearance of the blue-whites in the paddock and in front of the public. The Sykes substitute rider Eugene Laverty and Jonas Folger as the only BMW privateer remaining in the field were classified only two places lower. As the overall winner of the Andalusian round, Michael van der Mark from 13th on the grid will have a hard time following his excellent result with the Yamaha at the Circuito de Jerez. With two drivers still in the top six on Friday, HRC Honda also showed significantly more effort than expected. But at least Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista are in the third row, so the chances for a good race were definitely preserved.

Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati) was fourth-best just behind the top trio and the Englishman should be one of the very hot candidates for the race in the afternoon together with team mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

The interviews after qualifying
Jonathan Rea said after P3 that he was very satisfied, although not everything went as planned. Contrary to yesterday’s wish, it was much hotter than on Friday and, as expected, this made it a little harder than hoped. But he has a good feeling about the race. Alex Lowes also emphasized that the Kawasaki is never very good in the heat. But he is all the more satisfied when he has managed a good lap, with which he has a good starting position for the first run in the afternoon. Toprak pretended to be surprised because he wasn’t expecting the Pole. At the very end of his fastest lap, however, it would still have been enough for the fastest time. He was looking forward to the first race and politely said goodbye to the interviewer.

Group picture after Superpole with Yamaha ace Razgatlioglu between the two Kawasaki drivers Lowes (left) and Rea as third placed on the right.

The Superpole in numbers

P, No, Rider, Bike, Time(,Gap), km/h, Laps
1, 54, RAZGATLIOGLU Toprak, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’38.512, , 269, 6
2, 22, LOWES Alex, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’38.539, 0.027, 268, 5
3, 1, REA Jonathan, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’38.614, 0.102, 265, 7
4, 45, REDDING Scott, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’38.661, 0.149, 271, 8
5, 21, RINALDI Michael Ruben, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’38.860, 0.348, 271, 8
6, 55, LOCATELLI Andrea, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’39.056, 0.544, 269, 5
7, 11, BAZ Loris, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’39.322, 0.810, 270, 5
8, 91, HASLAM Leon, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’39.423, 0.911, 268, 7
9, 19, BAUTISTA Alvaro, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’39.609, 1.097, 273, 8
10, 31, GERLOFF Garrett, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’39.747, 1.235, 263, 6
11, 36, MERCADO Leandro, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’40.023, 1.511, 267, 8
12, 47, BASSANI Axel, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’40.081, 1.569, 267, 6
13, 60, VAN DER MARK Michael, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’40.092, 1.580, 266, 8
14, 94, FOLGER Jonas, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’40.121, 1.609, 265, 6
15, 50, LAVERTY Eugene, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’40.206, 1.694, 269, 8
16, 32, VINALES Isaac, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’40.273, 1.761, 264, 5
17, 3, NOZANE Kohta, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’40.367, 1.855, 267, 6
18, 76, CAVALIERI Samuele, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’40.433, 1.921, 269, 6
19, 17, FRITZ Marvin, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’40.490, 1.978, 260, 7
20, 9, MANTOVANI Andrea, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’40.795, 2.283, 263, 7
21, 23, PONSSON Christophe, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’41.030, 2.518, 263, 5
22, 84, CRESSON Loris, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’41.255, 2.743, 260, 6
23, 83, EPIS Lachlan, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’42.626, 4.114, 255, 6

WorldSSP 600 Superpole

It was Philipp Öttl on the Puccetti Kawasaki ZX-6R who secured pole position in qualifying, ahead of Aegerter and Caricasulo. Behind Gonzalez, Krummenacher and Tuuli, Odendaal only starts from row three together with de Rosa and Öncü. Behind him Moto2 rider Stefano Manzi together with van Straalen and Cluzel, the sixth in the World Championship. For the first race in the afternoon the weather looks very good and the dark clouds from Friday had already disappeared when it had even rained slightly the day before at the end of FP2 of the WSSP 300.

P, No, Rider, Bike, Time(,Gap), km/h, Laps
1, 5, OETTL Philipp, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’41.798, , 239, 10
2, 77, AEGERTER Dominique, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’41.834, 0.036, 237, 9
3, 94, CARICASULO Federico, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’41.964, 0.166, 238, 10
4, 81, GONZALEZ Manuel, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.046, 0.248, 242, 10
5, 21, KRUMMENACHER Randy, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.059, 0.261, 237, 9
6, 66, TUULI Niki, MV Agusta F3 675, 1’42.456, 0.658, 238, 9
7, 4, ODENDAAL Steven, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.570, 0.772, 239, 9
8, 3, DE ROSA Raffaele, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’42.592, 0.794, 237, 9
9, 61, ONCU Can Alexander, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’42.707, 0.909, 237, 8
10, 62, MANZI Stefano, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.811, 1.013, 235, 10
11, 28, VAN STRAALEN Glenn, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.932, 1.134, 238, 11
12, 16, CLUZEL Jules, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.943, 1.145, 240, 8
13, 22, FULIGNI Federico, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.115, 1.317, 235, 9
14, 34, MANFREDI Kevin, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.131, 1.333, 238, 9
15, 56, SEBESTYEN Peter, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.189, 1.391, 238, 10
16, 38, SOOMER Hannes, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.206, 1.408, 237, 10
17, 25, BRENNER Marcel, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.352, 1.554, 231, 10
18, 40, ORRADRE Unai, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.396, 1.598, 243, 7
19, 70, ALCOBA Marc, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.518, 1.720, 235, 7
20, 71, BERGMAN Christoffer, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.647, 1.849, 238, 10
21, 84, FABRIZIO Michel, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’44.032, 2.234, 238, 10
22, 6, HERRERA Maria, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.099, 2.301, 239, 10
23, 96, SANCHIS MARTINEZ David, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.156, 2.358, 234, 9
24, 55, HENDRA PRATAMA Galang, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.167, 2.369, 241, 8
25, 26, VUGRINEC Martin, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.283, 2.485, 235, 7
26, 95, TAKALA Vertti, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.364, 2.566, 235, 10
27, 92, VAN EERDE Bill, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.423, 2.625, 234, 7
28, 2, MONTELLA Luigi, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.670, 2.872, 234, 9
29, 45, KAWASAKI Shogo, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’44.790, 2.992, 237, 9
30, 50, VOSTATEK Ondrej, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.902, 3.104, 231, 9
31, 24, TACCINI Leonardo, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’44.939, 3.141, 238, 8
32, 69, MONTERO HUERTA Eduardo, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.315, 3.517, 231, 10
33, 42, FROSSARD Stephane, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.368, 3.570, 235, 10

The current World Championship stand in WorldSBK

The current World Championship status in the WSSP 600

The schedule for the Andalusian round in Jerez de la Frontera

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).