Superbike: Twentieth career pole for Tom Sykes

The 5,344 km of Motorland Aragon had given some problems to Sykes and Baz in the past: today, however, both riders managed to give the right answers on the track at the decisive moment, giving Kawasaki a front row that few had predicted this week.

The world champion was unable to match the astonishing time recorded here last year, but his 1'56.479 today came very close and was enough to grab first place on the grid at the end of SP2.

By taking his first pole position this season, the twentieth of his career, Sykes is now the fourth driver ever, just behind legend Carl Fogarty, who has scored 21 poles.
 
There is also great satisfaction on the other side of the Kawasaki garage, with Loris Baz completing the front row: up to now his best result in qualifying had been a fourth place, so it was understandable that he was particularly happy with his performance in the interviews post.
His main characteristic has always been knowing how to bring out the best in himself in the race: tomorrow he will also be in the best position to do so.
 
Switching to the EVO, David Salom had to work hard in qualifying to overcome the pain in his right hand, and find a good balance with the bike, which still had to assimilate the electronic improvements made during the Jerez tests.
Salom was unable to take advantage of his lap with the rear qualifying tire and access SP2: tomorrow he will start from the fifth row of the grid.

Below are the statements of the three Kawasaki riders:

“I'm happy because the goal was the front row and I got the pole position. I honestly felt that I could still improve my lap time, but after four treatments I was risking too much with the front tire and I didn't want to overdo it" - he said Tom Sykes on stage at the Paddock Show- “I think I could have beaten my track record, but in the end it wasn't like that.
The conditions were good, the bike worked well, but I was putting too much effort on the front tyre. The Ninja ZX-10R is working well over long distances so we will see what weather conditions we will race in tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see the performance based on the temperatures we find. Yesterday afternoon, in hot conditions we had a very good bike, today it was cooler and we obtained interesting data on the behavior of the Ninja."
 
“We have worked a lot on our bike and set-up compared to last year and our settings are totally different from last season.
I feel more confident and have more confidence with the bike” - he declared Loris Baz at the end of qualifying - “I feel good now on this track, which hasn't been lucky for me in the past. Now we're really fast, so everything is going well. I want to bridge the gap with Tom. We have two very different setups on the bike, just as we have two different riding styles. I worked a lot on my style and everything is going well now. I think a podium is possible tomorrow, generally I'm always faster in the race than in qualifying, so it will be interesting. We will have to safeguard the tire and choose the correct one based on the temperatures. A lot of things can affect a race, but we will do our best to be on the podium."

“I have a lot of pain in my hand when I open the throttle, but I had a lot of things to work on for tomorrow” - he said David Solomon, with pain in his right hand after a fall - “We have some electronic settings to try, we should have done it in the Jerez tests, but my fall made us lose time. We need to try them and I'm not in perfect condition. On my fastest lap on qualifying tires in a Superpole I went wide off the track and had to settle for 14th place on the grid."