Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) confidently won the Superpole of the 2022 Superbike World Championship at Donington Park in record time. Scott Redding secured fourth place on the grid for BMW, ahead of championship leader Álvaro Bautista (Ducati)
Superbike World Championship Superpole is a traditional qualifying session where all riders have 15 minutes to set their best possible time. New this year is Pirelli’s SCQ tire, which can last up to ten laps. Theoretically, the drivers could drive the entire session with this tire. However, the soft SCX racing tire is usually used for warming up.
In practice on Friday impressed Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) with strong lap times in race trim. Im FP3 on Saturday morning, however, Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) surprisingly set the best time of the weekend so far at Donington Park with a time of 1:26.877 minutes.
To assess: Rea set the lap record in the Superpole Race 2019 with a 1:27.166 min. Tom Sykes’ (Kawasaki) pole record is even older: in 2017, the Englishman managed an outstanding lap of 1:26.641 minutes.
In the Superpole it had to be shown who had the edge on a fast lap. The weather at the start of qualifying was sunny, with pleasant temperatures and only a light breeze.
After five minutes, Rea was only 0.016 seconds behind the pole record with a 1:26.657 min. BMW driver Scott Redding came second and surprised by just 0.2 seconds behind. World Championship leader Álvaro Bautista also clocked a time of under 1:27 minutes in third place.
After eight minutes, all Superbike riders picked up the soft SCQ tires for the final time hunt. Rea started, and Redding got stuck on his rear wheel again. The Kawasaki star broke the record in 1:26.230 min, the BMW driver improved to a 1:26.514 min. Rea then added another 1:26.080 min!
This time of the six-time world champion was untouchable. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) sped up to second, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) took over third on the grid.
For Redding it was enough for 4th place on the grid, followed by World Championship leader Álvaro Bautista and his Ducati teammate Michael Rinaldi.
Iker Lecuona, the best Honda, was seventh on the grid, 0.9 seconds behind.
Superbike rookie Philipp Öttl set the eleventh best time in the Superpole, but after an incident with Toprak Razgatlioglu in FP2 on Friday, the Go Eleven Ducati rider received a three-place penalty as a penalty. The 26-year-old is 14th on the starting grid.
Loris Baz was unlucky, on whose BMW they worked diligently in Superpole until shortly before the end. At the last minute, the Bonovo driver finished 13th.
| Result Superbike World Championship: Donington, Superpole | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | driver | Motorrad | time | Diff |
| 1. | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 1:26,080 min | |
| 2. | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki | 1:26,353 | + 0,273 sec |
| 3. | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Yamaha | 1:26,506 | + 0,426 |
| 4. | Scott Redding | BMW | 1:26,514 | + 0,434 |
| 5. | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 1:26,736 | + 0,656 |
| 6. | Michael Rinaldi | Ducati | 1:27,011 | + 0,931 |
| 7. | Iker Lecuona | Honda | 1:27,038 | + 0,958 |
| 8. | Garrett Gerloff | Yamaha | 1:27,100 | + 1,020 |
| 9. | Andrea Locatelli | Yamaha | 1:27,191 | + 1,111 |
| 10. | Axel Bassani | Ducati | 1:27,206 | + 1,126 |
| 11. | Philipp Oettl | Ducati | 1:27,336 | + 1,256 |
| 12. | Lucas Mahias | Kawasaki | 1:27,390 | + 1,310 |
| 13. | Tarran Mackenzie | Yamaha | 1:27,670 | + 1,590 |
| 14. | Loris Baz | BMW | 1:27,711 | + 1,631 |
| 15. | Leon Haslam | Kawasaki | 1:27,806 | + 1,726 |
| 16. | xavi virgin | Honda | 1:27,861 | + 1,781 |
| 17. | Leandro Mercado | Honda | 1:27,929 | + 1,849 |
| 18. | Illia Mykhalchyk | BMW | 1:27,957 | + 1,877 |
| 19. | Roberto Tamburini | Yamaha | 1:28,025 | + 1,945 |
| 20. | Eugene Laverty | BMW | 1:28,048 | + 1,968 |
| 21. | Hafizh Syahrin | Honda | 1:28,141 | + 2,061 |
| 22. | Peter Hickman | BMW | 1:28,378 | + 2,298 |
| 23. | About Nozane | Yamaha | 1:28,617 | + 2,537 |
| 24. | Christophe Ponsson | Yamaha | 1:28,935 | + 2,855 |
| 25. | Oliver King | Kawasaki | 1:29,011 | + 2,931 |
| 26. | Luca Bernardi | Ducati | 1:29,032 | + 2,952 |