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Defending champion and championship leader Tom Sykes will start from the front row in the deciding and final round of the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) at the Losail International Circuit. |
The Briton (1:57.468), who had struggled in the first three free practice sessions before going second fastest in the fourth, was four tenth of a second off the pace set by Ducati’s Davide Giugliano (1:57.033) in the Superpole last night.
The Italian picked up his third Superpole of the year, beating Ben Spies 2009 best lap timing of 1:37.280.
Sykes’ team-mate Loris Baz was second fastest in the last Superpole of his career. Baz, who will move to MotoGP next year, was one thousandth of a second shy off Spies pace with a 1:37.281 lap.
Sykes would like to keep an eye on championship rival Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli, who will start on the second row of the grid courtesy his fifth fastest time after Ducati’s Chaz Davies in fourth.
Frenchman Guintoli is 12 points behind Sykes in the championship standings and is the only one who can challenge Sykes for the title.
“I am relatively happy with the qualifying,” Sykes said yesterday. “Two guys in the front did two great laps. I am happy to be on the front row, we have a clear track. And honestly we will be working very hard with the ZX-10R for tomorrow’s two races. That’s where it counts. It is a slender lead but at least it is a lead. We have that to work with and hope that’s good enough.”
Sykes has been in the mix for a championship for the third consecutive year, losing out to Max Biaggi in 2012 by half a point and winning the title last year.
“I am very fortunate that it is the third consecutive year [that I am fighting for the championship]. I will use that experience the best I can and try and put it in practice tomorrow,” the Yorkshireman said.
“Of course, we started the weekend slow and some people were quick to judge. We were able to do well today, and tomorrow we will have to fine tune the ZX10R even more because there are a couple of areas I would like to work on. Very excited and very motivated. I just hope that we have a great day at this fantastic circuit.”
Giugliano was happy with his Superpole-winning performance. “My weekend started difficult but my team and I concentrated on the job at hand, which was to go fast. Right now, however, I am happy about the Superpole. I want to concentrate on tomorrow’s race,” the Italian said.
Baz said he hoped to leave from WSBK on a high and wanted to do his best to help Kawasaki win the constructors’ title.
“I wanted to be on Superpole for the last one but made too many mistakes and Davide was too fast,” Baz said yesterday.
“Let’s hope that tomorrow I can get the first position. I want to finish this WSBK career on a high. And I would like to thank the team for all the things they have done for me. I am confident for the race, because we have good pace.
“Let’s hope we can win the world championship for Kawasaki tomorrow.”
Australian Alex Cudlin, who made his WSBK debut with Team Pedercini and is also riding in the Qatar Superbike Championship (QSBK) for the QMMF Racing Team during the weekend, will start on the sixth row. The four-time QSBK champion had the 16th fastest time of 2:00.439.
Earlier, Jules Cluzel pipped champion Michael van der Mark for pole position in the Supersport category.
Van der Mark, who will be moving to a Superbike ride with Pata Honda for 2015 and 2016 after becoming the youngest Supersport champion this year with two races to spare, had led the qualifying session till MV Agusta Reparta Corsa’s French rider went 0.372 seconds faster with his final lap to take the 10th pole of his career.
The Dutch rider, who has never raced at Losail, said, “It’s amazing to come here as a world champion. I am really enjoying this track. It’s great to race under lights like this. I am having fun. It’s my last weekend in Supersport and I will do everything to win.”
Van der Mark’s Pata Honda Supersport team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti snapped up the final front row place.
