Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea will start tomorrow’s two second-round World Superbike championship races from the second row of the grid after setting the fifth fastest time in this afternoon’s Superpole at Motorland Aragon in Spain.

The 27-year-old British rider topped all but one of the four free practice sessions of the weekend on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP, but was unable to maximise the additional grip of his Pirelli qualifying tyre on its one available flying Superpole lap of the 5.344km Aragon circuit.

Pole position went to another British rider, Tom Sykes, with his team-mate Loris Baz and Sylvain Guintoli completing the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s two 17-lap races, which go off at 10.30 and 13.10 local time.

Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate, Leon Haslam, made positive strides forward with the set-up on his own CBR machine in today's two free practice sessions, but crashed early in Superpole, leaving him with a 12th place starting position on the grid.

Jonathan Rea - P5, 1m56.972s

I’m honestly quite happy as this is the fastest I’ve ever been around Aragon and we’ve made such a big step since last year. It was quite a perfect lap from me but we just didn’t have the out-and-out speed with a qualifier in. While I’m satisfied with my lap time, I’m not with my position. Looking at the track condition this morning, I expected a 56s would be good for front row, but the pace is quite fast. We worked a lot on our option tyres this morning and checked them again this afternoon. We’re still not seeing the high temperatures that we’d need to run the really soft tyre so tomorrow’s going to be a big tyre decision. Whether the sun comes out and heats the track or not, I’m quite satisfied with the set-up we’ve got. We need to work a little mo re on engine braking tonight, but I just need to make a really good start from row two and try to go with the guys in front of me on the grid.

Leon Haslam - P12, 1m58.376s

The last three crashes I’ve had have spun the bike from under me on fast, third or fourth-gear corners, which is kind of frustrating. We started off on the back foot here but we’ve made progress every session and the bike felt pretty good this afternoon. I was on target for a 57s lap on a race tyre, which is in the ball park, but I’m lucky the bike didn’t high-side me like it could’ve done. But this is something we definitely need to look into and solve for the future. My race pace is quite good, although tyre life is an issue for the cooler conditions, so we’ll re-assess that in morning warm-up and decide which tyre to go with. As far as the chassis is concerned, and the progressions we made electronically before the crash, I’m quite happy.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

We can be quite pleased with Jonathan’s fifth place and his performances during the free practice sessions. His race pace looks quite strong and should give him the potential to fight for the podium, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Leon has been looking good all day after making some good steps forward, and he was fourth in the final session before Superpole. Unfortunately, he crashed and we’ll have to analyse the data in more detail to see exactly why. We’ll help him to re-discover his confidence in warm-up tomorrow and hope that he can have a good couple of races.

Qualifying position

1 Tom Sykes 1'57.932 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Loris Baz 1'57.941 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Sylvain Guintoli 1'58.149 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Davide Giugliano 1'57.985 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
5 Jonathan Rea 1'58.448 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
6 Chaz Davies 1'57.936 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
7 Marco Melandri 1'57.686 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
8 Eugene Laverty 1'58.492 IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
9 Alex Lowes 1'58.367 GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Toni Elias 1'59.631 SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
11 Leon Camier 2'00.565 GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
12 Leon Haslam 1'58.376 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
13 Niccolo Canepa 1'59.623 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 David Salom 2'00.663 ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
15 Ayrton Badovini 1'59.899 ITA BIMOTA Team Alstare
16 Claudio Corti 2'00.525 ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
17 Sheridan Morais 2'00.801 RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
18 Christian Iddon 2'00.671 GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare
19 Michel Fabrizio 2'01.481 ITA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
20 Jeremy Guarnoni 2'00.736 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
21 Fabien Foret 2'02.188 FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
22 Luca Scassa 2'02.037 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
23 Alessandro Andreozzi 2'02.507 ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
24 Imre Toth 2'02.682 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
25 Aaron Yates 2'03.102 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
26 Geoff May 2'03.657 USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
27 Peter Sebestyen 2'05.623 HUN BMW BMW Team Toth

Championship standings

1 Sylvain Guintoli 41 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Loris Baz 31 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
3 Marco Melandri 28 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Davide Giugliano 26 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
5 Tom Sykes 25 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Eugene Laverty 25 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
7 Jonathan Rea 21 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
8 Chaz Davies 17 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 David Salom 13 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
10 Niccolo Canepa 11 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
11 Leon Haslam 10 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
12 Fabien Foret 8 pts FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
13 Toni Elias 7 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
14 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
15 Sheridan Morais 3 pts RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
16 Claudio Corti 3 pts ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
17 Alex Lowes 3 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
18 Jeremy Guarnoni 2 pts FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
19 Imre Toth 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
20 Alessandro Andreozzi 0 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
21 Aaron Yates 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR

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