Tom Sykes placed himself second in Superpole at the all-new Moscow raceway after working his way to a strong race set-up in qualifying. Loris Baz overcame two falls to earn a third row start.

The 3.931km Moscow Raceway proved a tough test for many riders in practice and qualifying but despite the tight and twisty nature of the racetrack in some areas Sykes and his Kawasaki Racing Team Ninja ZX-10R were able to compete for the Tissot-Superpole win right to the end.

Sykes is now confident that, weather conditions permitting, he will start each 25-lap Superbike World Championship ready to compete for podium places.

KRT rider Loris Baz had some difficult times during practice after two falls, but great work from his team, in the new era of single bike rules where bike have to be repaired quickly, gave him the chance to compete for grid places in Superpole and he finished up ninth overall. Two top ten finishes or better are in the sights of Silverstone race winner Baz on raceday.

Kawasaki runners Team Pedercini fielded three riders at Moscow Raceway, with regular runner David Salom into Superpole and finally 16th on the grid and with new riders Alex Lundh and David McFadden 20th and 21st respectively.

Tom Sykes:

"I am quite happy to be second in Superpole because this circuit has proven to be quite generous towards the vee configuration engines here. But, having said that Kawasaki have done a fantastic job. We have managed to build and keep building pace all week. For the races tomorrow we should be quite consistent. I am happy with my race package so it was just unfortunate today that the qualifying tyre gave us some small issues, so I had no answers for Carlos. We got a good reception at the Paddock Show and it is nice to have a fan base over here in Russia, so let’s hope we can put on a good show tomorrow. I think the circuit is showing that it should give close and competitive racing.”

Loris Baz:

“The last corner section has been our biggest problems from the beginning of the weekend. I lost three tenths there from the beginning. I am just trying to brake later but we have found a few things. I am really happy to be ninth on the grid after the beginning of the weekend we had. I lost nearly one and a half seconds after the crash of this morning. If I can stay in the top ten for each race that would be really good. I want to thank all the mechanics because they have had to make up two bikes since the beginning of the weekend.”

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