Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) came within 0.048 seconds of his ninth Superpole win of the year, earning a highly-prized front row start in the process as he goes for raceday success on Sunday.

Sykes had been on the leading mix at Jerez all through practice and qualifying although not pushing too hard in Superpole on the eve of the final raceday of the year, after a harmless fall in an earlier session.

Tom leads the championship by 37 points and starting Sunday’s races from second place on the grid puts him in an almost perfect position to finish the great job he, his team and Kawasaki have been doing all year.

Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) was all set to ride at the final round of the year as his fractured D4 vertebra had healed up so well in a short space of time, but final medical approval was not given for Loris, which prevented him from competing on his Ninja ZX-10R.

Mark Aitchison and his Team Pedercini Kawasaki team-mate Federico Sandi each qualified for the Superpole contest, with Sandi finishing up 14th. Aitchison had a series of great rides to the very last session in Superpole and he finished up a confident ninth on the grid.

In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup class, Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) will start the race from pole position on Sunday after taking the fastest lap in combined qualifying today. Kawasaki Team Pedercini rider Leandro Mercado was third fastest, with his team-mate Lorenzo Savadori seventh. Alessandro Andreozzi (Pedercini Team Kawasaki) was fourth and Romain Lanusse (Team MRS Kawasaki) fifth.

Tom Sykes:

“Front row is our target and it has been all season, and it just so happens that we have had eight pole positions this year as a result. I would say it was possible to make pole today but we had a little hiccup and there was no need to test the boundaries again. I know what my potential is and we did not really utilise the full potential of myself, and the bike, in Superpole. We want to get a good clean start if we can tomorrow, get stuck in and see what happens. A couple of guys are going to be fast early on and we have just got to do what we normally do every weekend. That is my plan. I am quite happy with our race set-up on the Ninja ZX-10R and the only thing I am trying to think about is trying to win the races. The conditions do change between races, and race two is going to be hotter than race one, but I am sure every guy on the grid has taken that into consideration. I think all things considered the bike is good across mixed conditions. Over race distance of 21 laps, I am happy.”

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