Superbikes | Jerez round, Tissot-Superpole: Rea takes pole

The Tissot Superpole of the Acerbis Spanish Round ended in the name of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who set a new track record and achieved his second pole position of the season.

The four-time champion is on the host Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) and on Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) who seems to have done an excellent job during the two days of testing in Misano.
After winning two races at Imola, Rea was the first to lap at a pace higher than Marco Melandri's track record. The Northern Irishman lapped at 1'38.743 on race tires before lowering his time further to 1'38.247, thus finishing at the top of the timesheets and being able to start from the first place on the grid in view of Race 1. Also Bautista was fast but always lost precious tenths in the final sector. We finally see a competitive Marco Melandri, back in top form at a track where he scored pole position in 2017, the last time WorldSBK raced at Jerez. Today the rider from Ravenna achieved the third fastest time, placing the first Yamaha on the grid.
Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) opens the second row without having made notable improvements in this session compared to the previous ones. The Englishman used racing tyres. With third place in the championship, Lowes will want to consolidate his position in the general classification. Fifth time for Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who thus achieved his best result in Jerez. Closing the second row is Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) who achieved another excellent result, from the start of the season to now he has never gone higher than sixth place in the Tissot Superpole
Seventh place for Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) who was fast during the qualifying session. Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) follows him and scores his best qualifying of the season with eighth place. Closing the line is Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha Team) who also crashed at turn 6 before improving and reaching ninth place on the grid.
Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) went from pole position in Imola to 12th fastest in Jerez, placing himself ahead of Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) who returned after an injury that kept him away from the track for two months, while Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing) is 15th after suffering a crash on Friday.

Below are the top six qualifiers:
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1'38.247
Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) 1'38.283 +0.036
Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) 1'38.489 +0.251
Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) 1'38.734 +0.487
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1'38.762 +0.515
Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 1'38.846 +0.599