Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two second round World Superbike championship races at Imola in Italy from the second row of the grid after setting the seventh fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole qualifying sessions.

Pole position was taken by British rider Tom Sykes as Rea and his Honda World Superbike team continued to seek an optimum setting for his Honda CBR1000RR around the fast, undulating 4.936km Imola circuit.

Rea was forced to use one of his two qualifying tyres in Superpole 1 when it looked as though his first lap time might not be enough. Consequently, having progressed from Superpole 2 comfortably, the 25-year-old Northern Irishman went into the final session on race tyres.

Rea suffered a big highside crash in the last few moments of Superpole 3 but was able to walk away unhurt and continue his preparation for tomorrow’s two 21-lap races.

His Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hirosh Aoyama, did not qualifying for Superpole, despite significantly improving his time from yesterday. The Japanese rider will start tomorrow’s races from the sixth row of the grid.


Jonathan Rea – P7 1m47.643s

It’s been a bit frustrating today because it seems that we’ve improved the pace from last year, but the pace to win the race is now much faster. Pirelli have brought a new tyre which is bringing some more time, but, for me, I’m a little surprised that we’re not as competitive as we’d hoped. For Superpole we made quite a good change to the bike but I got caught out with a crash at the end when I put a race tyre back in the bike. I had quite a good split and, yeah, just used a few per cent more gas out of turn five and had a big highside, so I think I’m quite lucky to escape without injury. The bike’s working OK, but it’s quite hard to know what the race pace is going to be tomorrow because quite a few riders have been working on different strategies with tyres. Second row is not so bad, though – I’ll just try to get a good start and go with the front guys tomorrow.

Hiroshi Aoyama – P23 1m50.670s

It’s been a difficult day for me. We improved things a little bit but it was not enough – we needed to find about two seconds but we still have some work to do. We have quite a lot of different problems so it’s difficult for me to put all the sectors together for one good lap. I don’t know the track so well and, of course, I am still learning the bike. Our main problem is stability under braking and getting the bike stopped. We’ll try to get the bike a little more calm and under control for warm-up because the movement under braking is affecting the whole lap.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

I think we made some good steps on Jonathan’s side today, but a lot of other guys are quite fast too. We worked on the feeling with the front – changing springs and ride height. We’re a bit quicker than last year but need to find a little bit more. We’re still on the second row, though, and it seems Jonathan is OK after his big crash, so we’ll try to race with the fast guys tomorrow. With Hiroshi we’re playing too much catch-up. He’s new to the bike and new to the track, but we’re still making steps. He’s found nearly two seconds today but everyone else is getting faster too. He missed out on Superpole but we have an idea to give him a better bike for warm-up and we saw in Phillip Island that he can fight his way forward, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Qualifying position

1 Tom Sykes 1m46.74s (SP3) GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli +0.473s FRA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
3 Carlos Checa +0.675s SPA DUCATI Althea Racing
4 Leon Haslam +0.710s GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
5 Max Biaggi +0.863s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
6 Marco Melandri +0.894s ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Motosport
7 Jonathan Rea +0.895s GBR HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
8 Joan Lascorz +0.992s ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
9 Lorenzo Zanetti 1m48.108s (SP2) ITA DUCATI PATA Racing Team
10 Jakub Smrz 1'48.137s CZE DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
11 Eugene Laverty 1'48.299s IR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
12 Davide Giugliano 1'48.650s ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
13 Maxime Berger 1'48.267s (SP1) ITA DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
14 Niccolo Canepa 1'48.382s ITA DUCATI Red Devils Roma
15 Leon Camier 1'48.415s GBR SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
16 Ayrton Badovini 1'48.631s ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
17 Chaz Davies 1'48.857s GBR APRILIA ParkinGO MTC Racing
18 Michel Fabrizio 1'48.904s ITA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET
19 John Hopkins 1'49.790s USA SUZUKI Crescent Fixi Suzuki
20 David Salom 1'49.854s SPA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
21 Mark Aitchison 1'50.009s AUS BMW Grillini Progrea Superbike Team
22 Brett McCormick 1'50.266s CAN DUCATI Team Effenbert Liberty Racing
23 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'50.670s JPN HONDA Honda World Superbike Team
24 Leandro Mercado 1'50.999s ARG KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
25 Lorenzo Alfonsi 1'52.993s ITA HONDA Team Pro Ride Real Game Honda


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