Snapshot of an unemployed onlooker who was supposed to be sitting on his BMW M-1000RR – because he ended up in the wrong team, Eugene Laverty has to pay a high price for it and is doomed to watch for the third time in a row.

Sensational Jonathan Rea on pole position for the seventh time in a row

For Toprak Razgatlioglu as a devout Muslim, it must feel strange to compete in the middle of one of the most famous wine regions in Europe, if not the whole world. At each award ceremony, the Turk immediately flees from the podium before his competitors start with the champagne shower. For the Italian sponsor Prosecco, this is anything but a pleasant sight. The other riders don’t have such problems on the Circuito de Navarra, but there were many critical voices about the condition of the track in the Rioja area. It is not known whether the countless potholes have also got worse from the truck races held here since the pilots carried out their tests on site in the spring. In any case, there were numerous criticisms that all rider requests were completely ignored, and no improvements were made. You could see again in FP3 how uneven and bumpy the track was in many places. Andrea Locatelli was the fastest on Saturday morning, ahead of Scott Redding and Jonathan Rea with a new best time of 1’37.060.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) is the undisputed new Mister Superpole after his predecessors Troy Corser and Tom Sykes – no other driver apart from him has been on pole position this year!

WorldSBK Superpole with a frustrated Toprak
There had been no falls at all in the third free practice session. In contrast to the WSSP, the Superpole was also spared from crashes. The first record was set by Jonathan Rea and then Tom Sykes only narrowly failed because of his time. Two minutes before the end, Chaz Davies set a surprising scent note with the provisional best time of 1: 36.693. One after the other, however, Locatelli, Sykes, Redding and finally Rea were faster again. After taking the seventh pole position in a row, the Northern Irishman seems to be on the way to another new record. Together with Redding and Sykes, he will be able to start the race from the front row, which is definitely an advantage on this track, especially over Razgatlioglu. The Turk stumbled unexpectedly heavily in qualifying after he said on Friday that he felt very good with the Yamaha on this new course. Together with Alex Lowes and Garret Gerloff, Toprak has to make do with row three this time, which is very frustrating for currently the toughest opponent of the World Championship leader.

Chaz Davies (GoEleven Ducati) spoke before the start of the season about being able to fight for the title with factory support after switching to a private team. After two good first laps and a crash, however, the Welsh team got into trouble. Except for race 2 in Assen, there were hardly any bright spots after that until the Superpole in Navarra.

Result of the Superpole and start-up

For a change, the starting grid once in different colours per starting row. The positive surprises on Saturday morning definitely included Lucas Mahias and Chaz Davies with the second row on the grid, in front of countless factory riders.

The first interviews after Superpole
The second set of tires was better than the first. But basically I feel very consistent and now let’s see how the first race will turn out. In any case, the feeling with the Kawasaki was very good. With the extra grip in the morning, Tom Sykes was not equipped with the right setup, as he stated. But with the qualifier it was a great fit for him, as so often, and now he first wants to see how it turns out in the race. Scott Redding looked very satisfied and emphasized that it was important for him to be in the front row. Qualifying with the Ducati is never easy, and he was relieved that it worked so well with the second set of tires. Now, of course, he hopes to fight for victory in the afternoon.

Circuito de Navarra

The route map of Navarre, where the first WorldSBK race in history will start on August 22nd, 2021. With 9 right and 6 left turns, the Circuito de Navarra, like most of the other routes, is clockwise on the calendar. The racetrack was completed in June 2010 and is 3.933 km long and the start-finish straight is 800 m.

Stand in the WorldSBK world championships after Most

WorldSBK Navarra schedule

>WSBK Navarra Preview see separate report on this page.

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