Jonathan Rea a class apart after breaking the lap record twice to secure pole

Keen to position themselves in the perfect position, BMW riders Scott Redding and Loris Baz settled in behind day-one pacesetter Jonathan Rea to begin Superpole. 

However, Baz’s efforts of keeping touch with Rea and Redding ended immediately after crashing in sector one. 

As Rea went fastest, Redding slotted into second, less than two tenths off the six-time WorldSBK champion. A further two tenths back was reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, with series leader Alvaro Bautista in fourth. 

On his next flying lap, Bautista set a purple sector two as he moved ahead of Razgatlioglu for third. The Ducati rider, now less than three tenths behind Rea, frustratingly saw that margin once again grow as the Kawasaki rider improved with a time of 1:26.657s. 

Still hot on Rea’s heels, Redding managed to keep hold of his provisional P2 after setting his fastest lap of the weekend. 

At the start of their second and final run, Rea was again being followed by Redding as the BMW rider was determined not to lose touch.

While Redding did his absolute best and in the process improved by nearly three tenths, the former Ducati rider was unable to go quicker than Rea as the KRT rider came across the line to set a new all-time lap record. 

Razgatlioglu momentarily took P2 away from Redding before Alex Lowes set a brilliant time of 1:26.352s to go second - one tenth shy of his team-mate.

But in dominant fashion Rea responded with another lap record - this time it was a time of 1:26.080s for the Northern Irishman. 

Lowes remained second to secure a KRT 1-2, while Razgatlioglu held off Redding and Bautista for third. 

Fastest during free practice 3, Garrett Gerloff could only claim eighth, with Michael Rinaldi and Iker Lecuona narrowly ahead of the American.

Philipp Oettl will drop three places from his 11th place grid slot due to slow riding during Friday practice.