HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea grabbed provisional pole position for Sunday’s penultimate World Supersport championship race by setting the fastest time in today’s opening qualifying session at Magny-Cours in France.
His team-mate and series leader, Andrew Pitt, sits on the provisional second row with the sixth fastest time of this afternoon’s rain-interrupted session, in spite of a crash late on.
Jonathan Rea – P1, 1m42.849s
There was a bit of rain which broke up the session, but we were on it pretty quickly. I went out soon after the rain cleared off and just built the lap times. It should be a bit warmer tomorrow – and faster – but the base speed should be 42s, and that’s what we did. It just shows how beneficial our test here last week was, and we’ll just chip away at some race runs tomorrow and build up for Sunday.
Andrew Pitt – P6, 1m43.601s
Well, I guess the story will be that I crashed at the end of that session. But the fact is the bike felt really good and everything was pretty comfortable until that point. I came in and put in a new rear but lost the front on the next flying lap. It was at the first left-hander, so I think it was just a case of not having enough heat on that side of the front tyre.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager:
I know it’s the same for everyone, but those were very tricky conditions. After the test last week, we expected both riders to be immediately up to speed and, apart from Andrew’s crash, that’s what happened. The most important thing is that Andrew’s not injured and the bike is not as badly damaged as I feared. Tomorrow’s forecast is for a full, dry day, and I’m quite sure we’ll have to go a fair amount quicker to be on the front row.
Results – World Supersport, Magny-Cours, first qualifying:
1 J Rea GBR (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m42.849s
2 B Parkes AUS (Yamaha) 1m43.007s
3 B Veneman NED (Suzuki) 1m43.343s
5 A Pitt AUS (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m43.601s
