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Haslam races to Aragon Tissot-Superpole

Saturday, 11 April 2015 13:48 GMT

First European Pole Position of 2015 secured by the Aprilia rider.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) will start tomorrow’s opening race of the 3rd round of the Eni FIM Superbike World Championship from Pole Position. A lap time of 1.49.664s, the fastest of the weekend so far and the fastest ever for a superbike on the new MotorLand Aragon configuration, left the Englishman 0.033s ahead of his nearest rivals Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati World Superbike Team) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) who will join him on the front row (+0.199s). For Haslam it’s his first Pole Position since Phillip Island in 2010 and the 2nd of his career.

This afternoon’s 15 minute battle to decide the top 12 places on the starting grid for tomorrow’s races was electric with the final grid line-up only decided in the final minute of Superpole 2, as the outright circuit best lap was bettered

Row two will see championship leader Jonathan Rea aboard his Kawasaki (+0.389), Xavi Fores (+0.785) who continues his impressive debut weekend on the second of the Aruba.it Ducati Superbike Team) and Ayrton Badovini (+1.006s).

The third row was decided in the final seconds of the session, with Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) taking 7th.  He will start alongside Alex Lowes and Nico Terol (Althea Racing).

Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing), Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and David Salom (Team Pedercini) complete the top 12 in a grid that sees 5 manufacturers inside a top ten .

Earlier, Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) were the two riders to progress from Superpole 1 into the final 15 minute shoot-out, as reigning Champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) missed out on one of the top two places available, the pair qualifying 14th and 19th respectively.