Superbike Assen Superpole: Rea wins his first showdown against Razgatlioglu

The Kawasaki rider set the best time during the Superpole, and will start from first place on the grid during Race 1 scheduled for this afternoon. He is ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Scott Redding.

After a final free practice session which took place a little earlier in the morning, and which allowed the Superbike entrants to perfect their settings, they finally took part in the first decisive event of the weekend.

It was of course the Superpole, which makes it possible to determine the hierarchy of Race 1 (that of Race 2, in any case with regard to the first three rows, being determined by the results of the Sprint Race which will have place tomorrow morning), and lasting a quarter of an hour.

Summary of the results of the 2019 edition:

WSBK Superbike Assen	April 2019	July 2021
FP1	1'35.598 Jonathan Rea	1'34.591 Scott Redding
FP2	1'35.414 Tom Sykes	1'34.391 Jonathan Rea
FP3	1'35.202 Jonathan Rea	1'34.596 Scott Redding
Super poles	1'34.740 Álvaro Bautista	1'33.842 Jonathan Rea
Race 1	Bautista, Rea, Van der Mark
Warm Up	1'35.416 Álvaro Bautista
Superpole race	Race canceled
Race 2	Bautista, Van der Mark, Rea
All time lap record	1'34.740 Álvaro Bautista

Entrance fall for Razgatlioglu

This qualifying session promised an epic duel between the championship leader, Toprak Razgatlioglu, and his runner-up Jonathan Rea, but it was somewhat foiled when the Turkish driver lost control of his machine in the last section of the circuit in overtaking his teammate Andrea Locatelli.

The Yamaha rider still managed to get back on his machine to defend his chances for the rest of the session, the first part of which was particularly lively with a mechanical problem for Tom Sykes, in search of a third consecutive podium this upcoming weekend. confirm the great progress observed since Donington. Garrett Gerloff also went off the track, the American losing the front of his machine in the middle of the session.

Rea's first times canceled

Rea took advantage of the events to quietly move into the lead of the session, with a lead of more than half a second over Locatelli and Lucas Mahias! But the mass was not said, far from it, Scott Redding getting back to work with the firm intention of transforming his good times in free practice into a valid position during this Superpole. His teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi was not to be outdone, the Italian being the first to come close to Rea's time before removing the Northern Irishman from his first place a few minutes from the end of the session.

Rea also saw his times from the start of the session canceled, forcing him to start from scratch. But the defending champion did not let himself be dismantled and went on the attack again to regain first place with a margin of almost half a second again (in 1'33.842, a new record) over his pursuer. , who was then Jonas Folger.

Razgatlioglu saves the furniture

While it quickly seemed obvious that Rea's pole position was assured, the identity of his closest rivals on the grid remained to be determined. Razgatlioglu, well recovered from his fall at the start of the session, took second place, falling just under two tenths off the best time.

Redding completes the top 3, just ahead of his teammate Rinaldi, who will lead the second row ahead of Alex Lowes and Folger. Locatelli ends this session in seventh place ahead of Leon Haslam and Michael van der Mark, while Álvaro Bautista will start this afternoon from tenth position on the grid.

Further down the hierarchy, Chaz Davies once again experienced disappointment after his fine third place in FP3, the Welshman having to settle for a distant 13th place. As for the only Frenchman present on the grid this weekend in Superbike (Christophe Ponsson being absent due to the ongoing restructuring of his team), Mahias could not do better than 15th.

Superbike – Assen – Superpole results:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com