Photo courtesy WorldSBK.com
Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) has taken the penultimate Tissot-Superpole of the 2015 season, the first fully wet qualifying of the year after the heaven’s opened at the Circuit Nevers de Magny-Cours shortly before Superpole 1 began. The British rider ended the session in the gravel after crashing in the final moments of SP2, edging out the newly crowned World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) by 0.004s.
With no wet practice, the 15 minute Superpole sessions provided the first opportunity for the 20 riders seeded to lap in the tricky conditions.
Superpole 1 saw Luca Scassa (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) progress to the final 15 minute shoot-out after the pair displaced Matteo Baiocco with their respective final laps.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) all crashed, Lowes’ incident bringing out the red flags. The session restarted with 2.46s remaining meaning that it was a one lap shoot-out to decide the grid.
Joining Haslam on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s 21 lap races will be Rea and for the second consecutive race Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing) after the wet conditions threw up some surprises at the front of the grid.
Row two will see Davies, Guintoli and Luca Scassa while a solid qualifying session sees Leon Camier head up a third row that also comprises Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) and Tom Sykes.
10th on the grid was Markus Reiterberger (VanZon Rehema BMW) with Alex Lowes and Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) rounding out row 4.
Row 5 will be filled with the riders placed 13th to 15th during Superpole 1. Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing), Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Team) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) therefore just missing out on a Superpole 2 start.
Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) will start his first WorldSBK race at home from 19th after crashing with 7 minutes to go in Superpole 1. David Salom (Team Pedercini) didn’t take to the track at all and will therefore start 20th.
Both races will be over 21 laps of the 4.411km French circuit and you can follow all of the action as it happens via the championship’s official Twitter: @WorldSBK
World Superbike Superpole results from Magny-Cours – Oct. 3, 2015
1 91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 1’56.404
2 65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1’56.408
3 59 N. CANEPA ITA Althea Racing Ducati Panigale R 1’56.912
4 7 C. DAVIES GBR Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team Ducati Panigale R 1’57.049
5 1 S. GUINTOLI FRA PATA Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR SP 1’57.839
6 99 L. SCASSA ITA Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team Ducati Panigale R 1’57.991
7 2 L. CAMIER GBR MV Agusta Reparto Corse MV Agusta F4 RR 1’59.768
8 86 A. BADOVINI ITA BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team BMW S1000 RR 2’00.676
9 66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 2’01.144
10 11 M. REITERBERGER GER VanZon Remeha BMW BMW S1000 RR 2’01.800
11 22 A. LOWES GBR VOLTCOM Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 2’02.227
12 81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 2’02.379
