Qatar WSBK: Sykes beats Rea to final pole of 2018

Sykes took his sixth pole of the season, and has now topped five qualifying sessions out of the last seven.

The 33-year-old was narrowly beaten to the early lead by Yamaha's Alex Lowes, whose 1m57.128s time was the benchmark until the final minute of qualifying.

Lowes was temporarily demoted by Eugene Laverty before surging back ahead, leading as the chequered flag fell.

But Kawasaki duo Rea and Sykes both improved, first the reigning champion beating Lowes by exactly one tenth and then Sykes setting a 1m56.124s.

Lowes will complete an all-British front row in third, followed by the Aprilias of Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori.

Barni's Xavi Fores was the top Ducati rider in sixth, over a second off the pace.

Fores came through the first part of qualifying where he was second behind Leon Camier (Ten Kate Honda).

The sole BMW of Loris Baz will start the race seventh as Michael van der Mark had to settle for eighth, more than a second slower than his teammate Lowes.

The top 10 was completed by Marco Melandri (Ducati) and Camier, followed by Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki) and Chaz Davies (Ducati).

Leandro Mercado was the fastest rider not to make it to SP2 and is set to start 13th, as the Orelac Kawasaki man's final fast lap ended with a crash.

Grid for Race 1:

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	1'56.124
2	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'56.255	0.131
3	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	1'56.355	0.231
4	Eugene Laverty	Aprilia	1'56.534	0.410
5	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	1'56.959	0.835
6	Xavi Fores	Ducati	1'57.281	1.157
7	Loris Baz	BMW	1'57.347	1.223
8	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	1'57.362	1.238
9	Marco Melandri	Ducati	1'57.407	1.283
10	Leon Camier	Honda	1'57.682	1.558
11	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Kawasaki	1'57.695	1.571
12	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1'57.867	1.743
13	Leandro Mercado	Kawasaki	1'58.440	2.316
14	Jake Gagne	Honda	1'58.559	2.435
15	Gabriele Ruiu	Kawasaki	1'58.956	2.832
16	Roman Ramos	Kawasaki	1'59.300	3.176
17	Maximilian Scheib	MV Agusta	1'59.390	3.266