Leon Haslam takes pole in Magny Cours crash fest

Author: Oli Rushby Posted: 03 Oct 2015

Leon Haslam has taken pole position for the penultimate round of the Superbike World Championship in a wet superpole session at Magny Cours.

The Derbyshire-man’s time of 1’56.404 was enough to secure pole ahead of recently crowned World Champion Jonathan Rea despite crashing out in the closing moments of the session. Niccolo Canepa will join the two Brits on the front row.

Haslam wasn’t the only rider to fall in the tricky conditions, with second-place title fighters Tom Sykes and Chaz Davies also crashing out. The time Davies’ set before crashing was enough to secure him fourth place on the grid but Sykes wasn’t so fortune, dropping back to ninth fastest to start tomorrow’s races from the third row.

Honda’s Sylvain Guintoli also took a tumble but remained fifth fastest, ahead of Ducati replacement rider Luca Scassa who had a measure of the conditions having ridden in the SP1 session.

Camier leads the third row with Badovini sandwiched in between the MV Agusta and Sykes’ Kawasaki, with Markus Reiterberger rounding out the top ten.

Alex Lowes, who also crashed out of the session, will start eleventh ahead of Jordi Torres. 

World Superbike – Magny Cours – Qualifying Times

1. Leon Haslam – Red Devils Aprilia – 1’56.404
2. Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki Racing Team – 1’56.408
3. Niccolo Canepa – Althea Ducati – 1’56.912
4. Chaz Davies – Aruba.it Ducati – 1’57.049
5. Sylvain Guintoli – PATA Honda – 1’57.839
6. Luca Scassa – Aruba.it Ducati – 1’57.991
7. Leon Camier – MV Agusta – 1’59.768
8. Ayrton Badovini – BMW Italia – 2’00.676
9. Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – 2’01.144
10. 10.  Markus Reiterberger – BMW – 2’01.800
11. 11.  Alex Lowes – Voltcom Crescent Suzuki – 2’02.227
12. 12.  Jordi Torres – Red Devils Aprilia – 2’02.379

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