Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) flexed his muscles in Tissot Superpole 2 at the Prosecco DOC German Round on Saturday morning to register another pole position result, this time with a new WorldSBK Lausitzring record lap of 1’36.121.
His teammate Jonathan Rea and Milwaukee Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori also slotted in on the front row.
After setting record pace on Friday Sykes kept the momentum up with a superb SP2 performance to celebrate his birthday in style, putting him +0.213s ahead of his closest rival Rea.
The pole lap was nearly two seconds quicker than last year’s record. Just over a tenth of a second down on Rea in third place was Savadori, highlighting the significant progress in pace which is being made by Aprilia.
The second row features Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies in fourth and sixth respectively, with the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati pair sandwiching fifth placed Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team).
SP2 at the #GermanWorldSBK round also saw Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) qualify on the third row.
Meanwhile the fourth row is set to comprise wildcard Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW), Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team).
The two riders to have made it through from SP1 were van der Mark and Fores, with the Dutchman topping that session thanks to a 1’37.518 lap and the Spaniard following him into SP2 by a margin of +0.513.
Race 1 at the Prosecco DOC German Round takes place at 1pm local time (GMT+2) on Saturday, followed by Race 2 at 1pm on Sunday.