Barcelona WSBK: Sykes grabs pole to snap Rea's streak

Sykes came through at the end of the 15-minute Superpole session on Saturday morning to post a best time of 1m40.408s for his first pole since last year's Phillip Island round, and the first for BMW's M1000RR.

The 2013 world champion - who is currently out of a ride for 2022 after losing his seat to Ducati man Scott Redding - was fastest in the first runs, as he was the only rider to break the 1m41s barrier.

Kawasaki rider Rea couldn't match his former teammate on his first run, but on his second run he marginally shaded Sykes with a 1m40.921s to keep his hopes of a ninth straight pole alive.

But that time was soon beaten by championship leader Razgatlioglu, who recorded a 1m40.694s on his Yamaha, and then by Sykes' final effort that netted the BMW rider a record-extending 51st WSBK pole.

Redding was the best of the Ducati riders in fourth ahead of Alex Lowes on the second factory Kawasaki and Andrea Locatelli, who is now confirmed to be staying at Yamaha for another two seasons.

Leon Haslam had his best lap of his first run deleted for exceeding track limits, but banked a time at the end of the session good enough for seventh on the best of the Hondas.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Ducati), Sykes' BMW teammate Michael van der Mark and Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) completed the top 10.

Tito Rabat's replacement for the rest of the season at Barni Ducati, Samuele Cavalieri, was a solid 14th in his first qualifying since June's Misano round, one place behind the Go Eleven machine of Chaz Davies.

Alvaro Bautista was a disappointing 16th on the second Honda, eight tenths slower than teammate Haslam.

Australian debutant Lachlan Epis was 22nd and last aboard his year-old Pedercini Kawasaki, some five seconds off the pace.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	1'40.408
2	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'40.694	0.286
3	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'40.921	0.513
4	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'40.978	0.570
5	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'41.086	0.678
6	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'41.129	0.721
7	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	1'41.253	0.845
8	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'41.275	0.867
9	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'41.320	0.912
10	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'41.405	0.997
11	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'41.632	1.224
12	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	1'41.744	1.336
13	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1'41.791	1.383
14	76	Samuele Cavalieri	Ducati	1'41.801	1.393
15	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	1'41.808	1.400
16	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	1'42.055	1.647
17	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	1'42.215	1.807
18	94	Jonas Folger	BMW	1'42.257	1.849
19	32	Isaac Viñales	Kawasaki	1'42.446	2.038
20	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	1'42.460	2.052
21	84	Loris Cresson	Kawasaki	1'43.841	3.433
22	83	Lachlan Epis	Kawasaki	1'45.732	5.324
View full results