WSBK Phillip Island Gallery E

WSBK 2015 – Round One – Phillip Island – Image Gallery E
By Trevor Hedge

WSBK 2015 – Round One – Phillip Island – Image Gallery E

Jonathan Rea takes WSBK Superpole at Phillip Island

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) will start the opening races of the 2015 eni FIM Superbike World Championship from Pole Position after setting a time 0.026 faster than the opposition in Tissot-Superpole at Phillip Island this afternoon.

With temperatures soaring towards 60-degrees celsius, today’s Pole setting time was 1m31.212, a little slower than last year when the conditions were considerably cooler.

Superpole 1 was red flagged after nine minutes giving a welcome break to proceedings to the riders as the track temperature reached 56-degrees before Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing) and current FIM Superstock 1000cc Champion Leandro ‘tati’ Mercado (Barni Racing) progressed into the final 15 minute shoot-out. The pair narrowly edging Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who just missed out. All three were experiencing their first Tissot-Superpole.

Troy Bayliss (Aruba Ducati SBK) recovered from an FP4 crash to ensure that he lines up on the grid tomorrow in 14th, an incredible achievement considering he hasn’t raced competitively since 2008. Wildcard Jed Metcher (Race Center – Demolition Plus) will start 16th, with the third of the Australian entries Matt Walters (Team Pedercini) qualifying 19th after a huge crash into turn one as Superpole 1 was only a few minutes old. He escaped any serious injury.

Superpole 2 was action all the way with several riders taking their turn at the top before Rea came out on top ahead of Chaz Davies (Aruba Ducati SBK) and Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) who will line up alongside the x for tomorrow’s 22 lap races.

David Salom, the current EVO winner (Team Pedercini) crashed heavily entering the start and finish straight with 4 minutes to go causing a red flag, the Spaniard had been on a lap that could have seen him easily inside the top six.

Chaz Davies and Nico Terol had posted times to elevate themselves to Pole and 2nd respectively only for them to be delighted owing them to have crossed the line after the red flag following Salom’s incident.

Row two comprises with Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda WSBK), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and WorldSBK rookie Nico Terol (Althea Racing).

Leon Haslam – “A little disappointed that we didn’t get to put the Q in, I was a little bit reserved on the race tyre but hopefully Salom is okay after that big crash.”

Chaz Davies – “A fair improvement from last year, kind of strange that came about, I thought the opportunity had gone away from me, as I had used my Q up and saw the red flag just before I came across the line so lost my best lap, but got a little bit lucky with the session being cancelled.”

Jonathan Rea – “It was a really strange session, with it being cut short, I did a good job on the race tyre, I was looking forward to the qualifying tyre as I know our bike works so well on it.”