WorldSBK Magny Cours Superpole: Jonathan Rea breaks pole position record with lap record

Jonathan Rea has broken Ben Spies consecutive pole position record, setting a new record of eight in a row.

He’s done it again! Jonathan Rea has broken even more records stealing the record of the most consecutive pole positions in a row out of the hands of Ben Spies, Rea’s very late pole position meant he retains his 100% pole position record for 2021 with 8/8, not only this but he did it with the lap record handing Kawasaki their 100th pole position in the class.

The pole position was provisionally held by Tom Sykes with only five minutes to go with a 1:36.4 lap time, slower than Redding’s FP3 lap time, Sykes’ time was always going to be broken given the pace and speed of the riders on the newly resurfaced track, sure enough within minutes Alex Lowes set a 1:36.025 before Toprak Razgatlioglu did what he does best and destroyed Lowes’ time with a 1:35.784.

Of course, it’s not over until the fat lady sings, the then fifth-placed Jonathan Rea was just heading out on track with only 3 minutes to go meaning he had only one shot and one chance to take pole position and continue his record, his lap begun with a crash from Lucas Mahias ahead of him which surprisingly didn’t phase or slow down the six-time champion who continued to set red sectors before breaking the previous lap record held by Tom Sykes by a whisker of 0.013 seconds with a time of 1:35.683, only 0.101 seconds ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu in second place with Tom Sykes rounding off the front row in third.

Leading row two was Alex Lowes, the Kawasaki man was the first rider outside of the 1:35’s leading impressive rookie Andrea Locatelli by a mere 0.176, the pair were joined by Leon Haslam on the second row ahead of a Ducati duo, the Ducati’s really struggled in the qualifying session only managing P7 and P8 with Michael Ruben Rinaldi the fastest Ducati rider 0.070 seconds over his teammate.

Rounding off the top 10 were Michael van der Mark and the fastest independent rider Lucas Mahias.

Full results –