Loris Baz wins Jerez Superpole

Larry Lawrence | September 6, 2014

Photography by Gold & Goose

An intense Tissot-Superpole session was won by Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) who claimed pole at Jerez, round 10 of the 12 event series. It marked just the second-career pole for the Frenchman.

Superpole 1 was as equally exciting with Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia) posting an incredible lap of 1.41.768, a time that would have put him third overall on the pre-Superpole classification. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) also made it through to Superpole 2 with his fastest lap of the weekend where they joined the automatically seeded top ten riders after free practice.

After a tense Superpole 2 Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) will join Baz on the front row for the two 20-lap races tomorrow while row two will see the Aprilia Racing duo of Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli as well as Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who was 6th.

The accolade of being the fastest of the EVO qualifiers went to Sylvain Barrier who will start tomorrow’s races from 12th on the grid despite falling at turn 6 with two minutes to go.

Alex Lowes crashed his Voltcom Crescent Suzuki at turn two in the final 30 seconds and will start 9th.

Haslam ended the first segment of Superpole 2 on top, but in the closing minutes of the session it was Guintoli and then Giugliano topping the charts and then promptly getting into a high-speed wobble and running off into a gravel trap at speed. He somehow managed to keep the bike on two wheels.

With a minute and a half to go Baz went to the top and that would be the lap that ultimately held for pole.

Baz and teammate Sykes were noticeably cold towards one another on the Superpole podium, with each shaking the hand of Giugliano, but not of each other.

For Baz winning the pole was a great way to get the series back underway after nearly two months off.

“I tried everything for that pole position,” Baz said. “It’s been too long at home since the last race. I was really excited getting here; it seemed like it was the first race of the season. I’m really happy. The bike is working very well with the new tires from yesterday. This morning we struggled a little bit, but I’m really happy. Pere (Riba), my crew chief, and everybody on the team is working very well – improving the bike every time out. Now we have to work a little bit to find a good race pace.”

World Superbike qualifying results from Jerez – Sept. 6, 2014
1 76 L. BAZ FRA Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’40.298
2 34 D. GIUGLIANO ITA Ducati Superbike Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1’40.533
3 1 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’40.561
4 33 M. MELANDRI ITA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’40.822
5 50 S. GUINTOLI FRA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’40.877
6 58 E. LAVERTY IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’41.092
7 7 C. DAVIES GBR Ducati Superbike Team Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1’41.199
8 91 L. HASLAM GBR PATA Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 1’41.338
9 22 A. LOWES GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 1’41.421
10 65 J. REA GBR PATA Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 1’41.447
11 24 T. ELIAS ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1’41.882
12 52 S. BARRIER FRA BMW Motorrad Italia SBK BMW S1000 RR EVO 1’42.928

 

Larry Lawrence | Archives Editor

In addition to writing our Archives section on a weekly basis, Lawrence is another who is capable of covering any event we throw his way.