Photography by Gold & Goose
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes didn’t need to do it. Going into this weekend’s penultimate weekend of the World Superbike Championship the Brit holds a 31-point lead in the standings and could be excused for playing it conservatively, but Sykes would have nothing of it. The defending World Superbike Champion popped the cork on his factory Kawasaki to turn in a blazing, record-setting lap of 1:36.366 in Superpole at Magny-Cours Saturday, to take the top spot for Sunday’s pair of races in France.
Sykes will share the front row with Ducati’s Davide Guigliano (1:36.593) and Honda’s Jonathan Rea (1:36.906), making it three different manufacturers occupying row one. Row two comprises the second Ducati Superbike entry of Chaz Davies, and the Aprilia Racing duo of Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri.
The best classified EVO rider was Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia) who will start both 21 lap races from 13th on the grid. The Frenchman narrowly missing out on moving into Superpole 2.
Sykes’ eye-opening time shattered his own track record of 1:38.345 set last year. He mentioned track improvements having a hand in helping him turn such a time.
“I really enjoyed myself,” Sykes said of his qualifying run. “This weekend there’s been some very fast lap times. There’s new tarmac in some areas of the track, which has certainly helped. So tomorrow is going to be very interesting. There are a number of riders who can be very consistent. So today my aim was of course a minimum of front row. I had a little word with myself and needed to set my sights a little bit higher and with grip in the back of the Ninja it was honestly awesome. I really enjoyed the lap and am very, very happy with the final lap time, but even more so with the starting position for tomorrow’s two races.”
It marked the 24th-career Superpole for Sykes, his fifth of the 2014 season.
In Superpole 1 it was Frenchman Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) who set the fastest time of the weekend during the session, moving into the final 15 minute shoot-out along with Max Neukirchner (3C Racing Team) who also progressed joining the already seeded top ten riders after FP1, FP2 and FP3.
On race tires in the first segment of SP2 it was Ducati’s Davide Guigliano easily the fastest of the top dozen with a 1:37.011, that was sixth-tenths faster than second fastest Jonathan Rea on the Honda. Marco Melandri was third in the early going. Guintoli was fourth fastest and appeared to be upset with countryman Loris Baz and Leon Haslam for following him in the session.
In the second half of the session with gummy qualifying tires it was Chaz Davies coming up to second early. Then with a minute to go in the session Sykes burst through with a stunning lap of 1:36.366. You could tell he was wringing the neck of his Kawasaki ZX-10R, pushing very aggressively, at times on the edge of raggedness, on his pole lap.
World Superbike qualifying results from Magny-Cours – Oct. 4, 2014
1. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 36.366s
2. Davide Giugliano ITA Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 36.593s
3. Jonathan Rea GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 1m 36.906s
4. Chaz Davies GBR Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 37.021s
5. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 1m 37.184s
6. Marco Melandri ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 1m 37.190s
7. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 37.215s
8. Alex Lowes GBR Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 1m 37.270s
9. Eugene Laverty IRL Voltcom Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 1m 37.407s
10. Leon Haslam GBR PATA Honda CBR1000RR 1m 37.575s
11. Xavi Fores ESP 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 37.673s
12. Max Neukirchner GER 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 37.877s
13. Sylvain Barrier FRA BMW Italia S1000RR 1m 38.415s (E)
14. Toni Elias ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 1m 38.621s
15. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 3C Ducati SBK 1199 Panigale R 1m 38.883s
16. Niccolo Canepa ITA Althea Ducati 1199 Panigale R 1m 39.367s (E)
17. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 1m 39.452s (E)
18. Claudio Corti ITA MV Agusta RC F4RR 1m 39.518s
19. Sheridan Morais RSA IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 39.701s (E)
20. Fabien Foret FRA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 39.850s (E)
21. Jeremy Guarnoni FRA MRS Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 40.427s (E)
22. Alessandro Andreozzi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 40.926s (E)
23. Bryan Staring AUS IRON BRAIN Kawasaki ZX-10R 1m 41.181s (E)
24. Geoff May USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 1m 42.051s
25. Aaron Yates USA Team Hero EBR 1190RX 1m 42.406s
26. Imre Toth HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 1m 42.470s
27. Gabor Rizmayer HUN Team Toth BMW S1000RR 1m 43.023s (E)
28. Nicolas Salchaud FRA Dream Team MV Agusta RC F4RR 1m 44.559s
