WorldSBK Assen Superpole Results | Rea on pole, Razgatlioglu second despite fall

Jonathan Rea maintained his stronghold on Superpole for Round 5 of the 2021 WorldSBK Championship at Assen, the Ulsterman making it five pole positions from five attempts in the Netherlands.

An eventful session that saw Rea’s route to the top of the timesheets eased by crucial errors from his key rivals, his 1m 33.842secs effort on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR was the only lap to crack the 1m 34secs barrier.

Making it his 32nd career pole position, his 100% qualifying record for 2021 also marks his best ever Superpole streak.

It sets him up nicely for this afternoon’s first race, as he looks to apply pressure to championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu, who comes into the weekend with a slender two point advantage over Rea.

The Turk gets underway from second position but only after a remarkable effort by both rider an team to repair his Yamaha following an off at the Geert Timmer chicane early in the session. Losing the front-end and skating into the gravel trap, the Pata Crescent squad was able to turn his bike around in time for him to get back out in the final minutes and snatch a spot on the front row.

Rea and Razgatlioglu will be joined at the peak of the grid by practice pace setter Scott Redding, who has back-up from his Aruba.it Ducati team-mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi from a threatening fourth place.

Alex Lowes gets underway from fifth position ahead of the surprise of the session Jonas Folger, the German finding chunks of time to haul his MGM Bonovo BMW M 1000 RR up into the top ten for the first time this season as he out-qualified both factory bikes.

Similarly, Andrea Locatelli produced his best qualifying performance of the season in seventh, ahead of top Honda rider Leon Haslam, home hope Michael van der Mark and Alvaro Bautista, the Spaniard unable to find the form that had him up in third on the timesheets come the end of Friday.

In addition to Razgatlioglu, Garrett Gerloff was another faller after getting it wrong on the kerbs at Turn 2, but unlike his Yamaha counterpart he couldn’t get going again. 

He starts at the back of the grid in 21st place, where he is joined on the back row by Tom Sykes, who was slowed by a mechanical problem on his BMW.

2021 WorldSBK Assen | Superpole Qualifying RESULTS