Kawasaki Racing Press Release:
Superpole qualifying at Magny Cours delivered Tom Sykes (KRT) his fifth Superpole of the year and the 24th of his career. He will now lead the field off the line in Sunday’s two 21-lap races. Loris Baz (KRT) was seventh and KRT SBK Evo rider David Salom 17th after Superpole One.
Sykes overcame a slow speed fall in the final free qualifying session to go out in the second Superpole session and take a convincing pre-race win, and at new track best pace on his Ninja ZX-10R. The English rider set a 1’36.366 to beat his own previous record set in 2012. He secured his fifth pole of the year in confident fashion, with the next best rider 0.227 seconds back.
Already the third best rider in pre-race qualifying over the history of the SBK championship Sykes took a 24th career Superpole win today, which means he is now only two away from equalling the tally of SBK legend Troy Bayliss. Tom has also taken pole at four of the last five races this year.
Tom now has a clear track ahead of him for Sunday’s races, which may be important if there is changeable weather conditions after the first two days proved dry and relatively warm.
Baz had to compete in Superpole one after finishing outside the top ten in regulation qualifying. He posted the fastest time in Superpole One and therefore moved straight into Superpole Two, to join Sykes. Loris found some pace in that final session to go seventh overall and earn a starting position at the front of the third row.
David Salom hurt his recently injured right hand and wrist after a violent weave exiting the final chicane in free practice this afternoon. Despite the pain he batted hard to get out of Superpole One and he ended up seventh. He will therefore start the races on Sunday from 17th place on the grid, on the sixth row.
Tom Sykes:
“I always ride a little bit reserved with a race tyre in Superpole, especially with the one bike rule in place. My target today was very clear, however. It is always to get onto the front row at every race, but today I wanted to go for full glory. As soon as I put the qualifying tire in the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R was working brilliantly. All of a sudden we were able to put the bike where we wanted on the track a bit more easily and the new best lap time came relatively nicely. I was pushing, of course, and the bike was moving, but at the same time it was working well. Because of that I am very happy.”
Loris Baz:
“We improved a lot from the early part of practice and for Superpole Two we could have had a good performance. It could have maybe been P3 or P4, but I seemed to be losing everything in one corner. We have to see if we can make something with the electronics because we are just missing power in that one point. It is not too bad and for the race it should be OK if we can find something for this corner. With this improvement we could fight for the podium at my home race.”
David Salom:
“I tried to advance from Superpole One using some painkillers but it was too much for my hand and it was not possible push more than one or two laps. Tomorrow may be very difficult but I will have more checks later and we will see how things are in the morning.”
For more information: www.kawasaki.eu
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