WSB Qatar: Guigliano on pole as Sykes gains upper hand

Davide Guigliano will start tomorrow’s Qatar World Superbike races from P1, setting a phenomenal lap at the end of the Superpole session to become the fastest ever superbike racer around the fast track. His 1’57.033 lap beats Ben Spies’ from 2009, set under daytime sun instead of on a floodlit track.

However, Tom Sykes was the real winner of the session, finishing third on the grid behind teammate Loris Baz but taking a psychological advantage over title rival Sylvain Guintoli. The Frenchman will start from fifth, separated from Sykes by the second Ducati of Chaz Davies.

The Pata Honda teamamtes of Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea were sixth and seventh, with a late crash aborting Rea’s hopes of finishing higher on the grid. Marco Melandri was back in eighth, the Italian struggling all weekend long and being forced to come through to the session from Superpole 1.

Eugene Laverty was ninth, taking the flag to move from twelfth but visibly unhappy with his performances, with Tony Elias separating him from teammate Alex Lowes, who also crashed out on his fast lap at the end of the session.