News

Closely fought Tissot-Superpole contest in 2015

Monday, 27 April 2015 12:42 GMT

6 points separate Rea & Haslam as qualifying competition heads to Imola

 

This year’s Tissot-Superpole competition looks like being a fight until the end with only 6 points separating current leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils), the top two in the overall World Championship standings also heading the qualifying ranking after the opening four rounds.

The Tissot-Superpole Award is designed to recognise the best overall qualifier during the year with the top 15 riders on the grid receiving points in the same way as they do after each of the two races i.e. 25 points for the Pole Position rider, 20 points for second, 16 for third and so on.

After storming to Pole Position in the opening two races Jonathan Rea is followed closely by rival Leon Haslam who is the only rider within WorldSBK 2015 to have started each event from the front row of the grid. Haslam took the 3rd Pole Position of the year in Aragon.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team) is 3rd in the current Tissot-Superpole classification thanks to some super consistency, one point ahead of Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) who is the only other rider so far to have started from the number one spot on the grid, at Assen.

Rounding out the top 5 after four nailbiting qualifying battles is Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who has shown that, over one lap at least he is a contender.

With the aforementioned 5 riders dominating qualifying so far, only Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) has come close to starting from the front row and stopping the British surge over one single lap, the reigning World Supersport champion was 4th in the season opener at Phillip Island.

With the outcome of Tissot-Superpole usually being decided in the final second it’s difficult to predict the next Pole Position as the championship moves to Imola for round 5 – follow all of the action ‘live’ on worldsbk.com