#FRAWorldSBK | Jonathan Rea masters rain condition and conquers another Superpole!
Jonathan Rea will have the chance this weekend to conquer another World Title and it seems that Kawasaki rider wants to end the game in France already. Reigning World Champion did not give any chance to his rival in Superpole and will start from pole position
It was not the easiest qualifying session for Superbike riders as long as rain affected the session and forced a delay on the schedule due to track condition at turn 13. Superpole was so delayed at 11:30am local time, with the guys who had then to face a tough and tricky asphalt, where every mistake could be crucial but especially every lap could have been important with the circuit who was drying up.
This scenario did not scare Jonathan Rea, with reigning World Champion who will have the opportunity to conquer another World Title already in France and it seems to be ready for that. Kawasaki rider made indeed an impressive rhythm making from the first laps stunning times unreachable for everyone. At the end, the gap between him and his rivals is really close but only because Jonathan found a bit of traffic during his last attempt where he had almost half of a second of advantage on himself. Rea will start so again from the pole position in the weekend that could see him becoming for another time the World Champion.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">💥<a href="https://twitter.com/jonathanrea?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jonathanrea</a> grabs Tissot Superpole at Magny-Cours ahead of <a href="https://twitter.com/mickeyvdmark?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mickeyvdmark</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/realleonhaslam?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realleonhaslam</a> !<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FRAWorldSBK?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FRAWorldSBK</a> 🇫🇷 <a href="https://t.co/9Tswy6n4gs">pic.twitter.com/9Tswy6n4gs</a></p>— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldSBK/status/1177885988250701825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Michael Van Der Mark tried everything he could to snatch that pole position but had to give up for just 0.014s; the Dutch made two fast laps in the final stages of the session but both were not enough to conquer first position on the grid. Yamaha rider lost a lot of time in the last sector considering that he had a margin of one tenth of a second on Rea in the third part of the circuit, but as we told before, Jonathan would have probably still got the best time as long as Kawasaki rider was really fast.
First row is completed by a good Leon Haslam who made a good qualifying session ending in third with two tenths of a second of gap from his teammate. Leon needed a bit of time to find confidence but then was fast and will start from a good position. It was a really satisfying superpole for Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Loris Baz too who will start from 4th and 5th on the grid, before finding Tom Sykes who closes second row.
Alex Lowes is 7th followed by Eugene Laverty and Ryuichi Kiyonari, with Japanese rider who surely made one of his best sessions of the season in a really difficult year. Leon Camier ends top 10 ahead of Chaz Davies and Alessandro Del Bianco, always fast in rain conditions. Marco Melandri is 13th followed by Alvaro Bautista, who struggled a lot and will start from really behind; surely the Spaniard is hoping for a dry race as long as he was never that fast on rain coindition during the year to compete against Jonathan Rea.
No. Rider Nat Team Bike Gap Rel. Laps Avg Speed Class Time Max
1 1 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1'53.955 9 139,350 266,0
2 60 M. VAN DER MARK NED Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1'53.969 0.014 0.014 12 139,333 274,8
3 91 L. HASLAM GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1'54.212 0.257 0.243 10 139,036 273,4
4 21 M. RINALDI ITA BARNI Racing Team Ducati Panigale V4 R IND 1'54.563 0.608 0.351 10 138,610 254,1
5 76 L. BAZ FRA Ten Kate Racing - Yamaha Yamaha YZF R1 IND 1'54.670 0.715 0.107 12 138,481 262,8
6 66 T. SYKES GBR BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1'55.155 1.200 0.485 8 137,898 262,8
7 22 A. LOWES GBR Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1'55.427 1.472 0.272 10 137,573 269,3
8 50 E. LAVERTY IRL Team Goeleven Ducati Panigale V4 R IND 1'55.460 1.505 0.033 11 137,533 259,0
9 23 R. KIYONARI JPN Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda CBR1000RR 1'55.838 1.883 0.378 8 137,085 249,4
10 2 L. CAMIER GBR Moriwaki Althea Honda Team Honda CBR1000RR 1'55.977 2.022 0.139 10 136,920 264,1
11 7 C. DAVIES GBR ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1'56.271 2.316 0.294 6 136,574 253,5
12 52 A. DELBIANCO ITA Althea Mie Racing Team Honda CBR1000RR IND 1'56.327 2.372 0.056 10 136,508 261,5
13 33 M. MELANDRI ITA GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha YZF R1 IND 1'56.513 2.558 0.186 7 136,290 258,4
14 19 A. BAUTISTA ESP ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1'56.534 2.579 0.021 11 136,266 262,1
15 20 S. BARRIER FRA Brixx Performance Ducati Panigale V4 R IND 1'56.712 2.757 0.178 10 136,058 266,0
16 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU TUR Turkish Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR IND 1'57.091 3.136 0.379 9 135,618 263,4
17 11 S. CORTESE GER GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha YZF R1 IND 1'57.120 3.165 0.029 12 135,584 270,7
18 36 L. MERCADO ARG Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki ZX-10RR IND 1'57.373 3.418 0.253 9 135,292 257,8
19 28 M. REITERBERGER GER BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1'58.294 4.339 0.921 10 134,238 254,7
20 81 J. TORRES ESP Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR IND 1'58.928 4.973 0.634 10 133,523 254,1
