Kawasaki Racing Team rider Tom Sykes used his Ninja ZX-10R to full effect in qualifying once more to take his seventh Tissot-Superpole win of the year. His team-mate Loris Baz was 15th in Superpole.

Sykes set a new track best of 1’58.010 seconds at Brno on the second Superpole session, declared wet after a small smattering of rain, but eventually held in dry conditions.

Superpole 2 was interrupted by an oil spill on the track, which claimed several riders as they fell on the slippery track surface. After a long delay thanks to necessary track cleaning a new schedule was announced. The planned 16.25 restart was once more delayed by a fall of rain on one part of the circuit. A wet Superpole was called but the eventual second and final 20 minute ‘wet’ Superpole session took place in the dry, allowing Sykes to set his new best time.

KRT rider Baz had a strong qualifying show at Brno, going tenth in the combined times and easily putting himself into Superpole. He was looking good to progress through Superpole 2 but a small mistake cost him the required lap time and he now lines up 15th, on the fourth row of the grid.

Kawasaki Team Pedercini Superbike rider David Salom had a great qualifying experience compared to most and took his Ninja ZX-10R to ninth on combined qualifying, then moving through Superpole one, to start the first attempt at Superpole 2, which was finally abandoned when he and three other riders fell on the oil spill. He ended up 11th on the grid, for a third row start, as his bike was too damaged to continue in the eventual wet Superpole 2. His team-mate Leandro Mercado qualified 21st on the grid for Sunday’s 20-lap races.

In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup class Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) qualified second and Motorland Aragon race winner Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) was fourth, both starting off the front row.


Tom Sykes:

“I think overall things are looking not too bad for tomorrow. I think there is no question that the Kawasaki and I have got the speed to do this sort of thing in one lap. In terms of race performance we will see how we go but I am fairly confident for the races tomorrow. We have tried three different tyres and got a lot of information this weekend. Hopefully we can convert pole position but that has been difficult this year. I am sure I will sleep well tonight and come out swinging tomorrow.”

Loris Baz:

“I just missed a gear in the last corner. Normally I do the first part in second and the second part in third but I missed the gear between the corners and I just couldn’t do the lap time I wanted. It was looking like I would finish well but I ended up 15th. I think we have a good race pace because we improved a lot this morning, but it would have been great to start the races from the second row.”

David Salom:

“I’m very satisfied with my morning qualifying and with the first phase of the Superpole. Unfortunately in the second phase I crashed because of some oil on the track and I was not able to restart because my bike was badly damaged. This morning I was able to improve my best lap time and enter Superpole. We solved some problems on the electronics of the bike and they are now working very well. We improved the bike set up and so I’m confident for tomorrow’s race. I’ll try my best to get two good results.”

.