Tom Sykes secured his first pole position start of the 2015 season with a best lap of 1’34.789 during Superpole 2 at Assen, heading of his own team-mate Jonathan Rea by 0.131 seconds. It was Sykes’ 25th career Superpole success and meant that Kawasaki riders have taken three of the four pole positions available in the season so far.

Sykes, already the third most successful WSB rider in terms of career pole positions, moved to within one Superpole win of the second place rider in the record books, Troy Bayliss, with his fastest pre-race lap at Assen.

Always a fan of the fast and flowing nature of the majority of the Assen circuit’s corners, Sykes pushed on in confident fashion with a qualifying tyre to earn the best starting place for Sunday’s two 21-lap races.

Rea, who has only not been on the front row once this season, and who has two poles to his credit since he joined Kawasaki in the winter months, pushed on to lead for a time at the 4.542km circuit until Sykes swept in to make it a 1-2 for the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

Due to the tight nature of the first few corners at Assen, front row starts were an important part of each riders’ pre-race plan, and both got their wish in readiness for Sunday’s races.

With weather conditions cool in the mornings and warming up in the afternoons, each KRT Rider has already had good experience of the track in the conditions they expect to find it in on raceday. Race one will take place at 10.30 and race two at 13.10 on Sunday, in what are hoped to be dry conditions yet again.

Tom Sykes:

“We are definitely getting there now. It feels that this pole has been a long time coming but I am very happy. In Aragon we had a small indication that the Ninja ZX-10R and myself are starting to work as one package again. In the first two rounds the bike and myself were sometimes working in two different directions, but we are both working in the same direction now. I know we can still improve the Ninja underneath me but as long as we can keep working in this direction, I am happy. A lot of credit has to go to my crew chief Marcel and the boys in the garage. We have had the mechanics working hard and making a lot of changes. We have definitely got the speed and now I want that speed for 20 more laps here.”

Jonathan Rea:

I am happy to be on the front row because it is important here at Assen and also I have a strong race pace so it gives me a chance to be in the front at least. My lap was a good one but I made some small mistakes. Tom did a good job and that is an impressive lap time with the 2015 regulations in place. I really did want the pole position today because when I felt the qualifying tyre on the out lap, I though I could give it a go. I just overcooked it in T1 and it upset the next two corners. When I saw the lap time I knew we could be competitive for the front row but not for pole position.”

David Salom (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) qualified for Superpole 1 but could not progress into Superpole 2, and now starts the races from 16th place on the grid, on the front of the sixth row.