Tom Sykes flies at Motorland Aragón and is the SBK Superpole Man

The Superpole of the World Superbike Championship went to Tom Sykes, who managed to lap in 1:56.552 in Superpole 3, where he was up against seven tough, complicated and very strong rivals at the Motorland Aragón Circuit.

The first Superpole 1 session ended with Carlos Checa as the fastest rider, with a time of 1:57.756, so the number 7 was able to set a flying lap to take first place and move on to SP2 with ease, while his Zanettis, Baz, Camier and Fabrizio failed to qualify, not making it into the top 12 for SP2.

Behind Checa came Biaggi and Melandri, the two Italians who showed the most strength before the Spaniard displayed that good pace, making them candidates to give the number 7 a lot of trouble. Closing the top 12 of this first cut we have Chaz Davies 4th, Tom Sykes 5th, Sylvain Guintoli 6th, Leon Haslam 7th, Eugene Laverty 8th, Jonathan Rea 9th, Ayrton Badovini 10th, Davide Giugliano 11th and Jakub Smrz 12th.

The second cut of the World Superbike Championship for SP2 left Marco Melandri as the fastest rider, with a lap of 1:57.207, so the Italian went all out from the start, while Guintoli, Badovini, Giugliano and Smrz missed out on this second track session.

Behind Melandri came Max Biaggi 2nd, Laverty 3rd, Sykes 4th, Davies 5th, Checa 6th, Rea 7th and Haslam 8th. All of them ready for the final battle for pole position at Motorland Aragón Superbikes.

The moment of truth had arrived for the Superpole battle, and the favourites were on track, but Tom Sykes left the others no room to work and in a few laps set a 1:56.5, smashing the track records at Aragón with his Kawasaki. The truth is that the 66 is proving unbeatable in pole battles; he loses a bit of strength in the race, but he has a very good fast lap.

Behind them came Max Biaggi with a 1:57.260, just over 7 tenths off the leader, but doing a lot of work with his Aprilia, closing the places of honour with Eugene Laverty and his other Aprilia, who rode very fast, even though the 58 had a scare with a crash at the end of the official Superpole practice session.

The top 8 was Leon Haslam 4th, Marco Melandri 5th, Jonathan Rea 6th, Carlos Checa 7th and Chaz Davies 8th. The bull does not have an easy time on a circuit with two very long straights that require power; his Ducati does what it can in those sections.

Tomorrow we have two very interesting races ahead, with many riders among the favourites and warm temperatures, so we’ll see who wins each race at Motorland SBK.

Photo | PLusmoto.com (David Gómez)