Sepang (Malaysia), Saturday 7 June 2014 – With high track and air temperatures the first ever Tissot-Superpole at the Sepang International Circuit has been won by Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), who will start from pole position for the fourth time in his WSBK career.
At the end of a hot and humid 15 minutes on track Guintoli secured his second Superpole of the year, winning the grid deciding battle by a margin of 0.106s courtesy of a 2’03.002s lap time set in the closing stages.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) complete the front row with Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) and an unlucky Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team), who crashed whilst on a potential Pole Position lap, making up row two in both of tomorrow’s 16 lap encounters.
In the EVO category, the accolade of being the first classified competitor went to David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) who qualified 12th overall.
Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), ninth, and Salom were the first 2 classified riders in Superpole 1, progressing to the final shootout with the already seeded top ten from the combined free practice sessions. Ayrton Badovini (Team Bimota Alstare) had been on course for one of the coveted top two places before the Italian fell, thankfully without injury.
Times: 1. Guintoli (Aprilia) 2’03.002 average 162.378 kph; 2. Sykes (Kawasaki) 2’03.108; 3. Giugliano (Ducati) 2’03.137; 4. Elias (Aprilia) 2’03.160; 5. Melandri (Aprilia) 2’03.971; 6. Baz (Kawasaki) 2’04.027; 7. Laverty (Suzuki) 2’04.263; 8. Davies (Ducati) 2’04.343; 9. Lowes (Suzuki) 2’04.433; 10. Rea (Honda) 2’04.514; 11. Haslam (Honda) 2’05.202; 12. Salom (Kawasaki) 2’06.388; 13. Canepa (Ducati); 14. Corti (MV Agusta); 15. Iddon (Bimota); 16. Camier (BMW); 17. Morais (Kawasaki); 18. Badovini (Bimota); 19. Foret (Kawasaki); 20. Guarnoni (Kawasaki).
