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SUNDAY STATS PACK: will the title lead change in WorldSBK at Jerez?

Sunday, 26 September 2021 07:31 GMT

With five changes so far, who’d put it past it changing once more under the Spanish sun?

The 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is in its tenth round of the season, the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto and the Motul Spanish Round being the next chapter of an unforgettable season. The Championship fight is raging between Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and after an intense Tissot Superpole battle on Saturday, the stats are shaping the showdown for Sunday.

  1. Toprak Razgatlioglu took a second career pole position in Tissot Superpole, giving Yamaha their 40th in WorldSBK but their first at Jerez.
     
  2. Yamaha’s first pole at Jerez means it becomes the 22nd circuit they take pole at in WorldSBK.
     
  3. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) took second, his best Superpole result of the season and his first front row after Superpole since Portimao.
     
  4. Jonathan Rea took a second consecutive third-place in Superpole, the first time this has happened since Imola and Sepang back in 2016.
     
  5. An Italian vibe on the second row with Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi fourth and fifth, and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) in sixth. It’s the first time both factory Ducatis have been inside the top five after Superpole since Redding was third and Rinaldi fourth at Assen this season.
     
  6. Top Independent honours went to Loris Baz (Team GoEleven), as he was seventh. This is the first top seven Superpole result by a French rider at Ducati since Sylvain Guintoli at Magny-Cours in 2012, when he was fifth. He’d go on to win Race 1.
     
  7. Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) was back on the third row for the first time since Misano earlier this year; it is his 18th top ten placing on the grid, the next one will match his race number.
     
  8. The top six on the grid are all factory teams, the third consecutive round this has happened.
     
  9. In WorldSSP, Philipp Oettl returned Germany to pole position for the first time since Brno 2018 when Sandro Cortese took it. Oettl is the first German rider to take pole not on a Yamaha.
     
  10. Also, in WorldSSP, Kawasaki’s pole breaks Yamaha’s streak of 18 in the class, which was the third-longest manufacturer pole streak in World Supersport history.

Watch the 2021 season continue to unfold from 11:00 local time (GMT+2) on Sunday with the WorldSBK Tissot Superpole Race and the WorldSBK VideoPass!