Donington WSBK: Sykes dominates for fifth pole of 2016

The Kawasaki driver's lead was four tenths before the mid-session pitstops, with Davide Giugliano running second.

Although Sykes was temporarily demoted by Jonathan Rea and Lorenzo Savadori, his late flyer put him eight tenths in the clear.

Behind Sykes, four riders completed the top five extremely close to each other, separated by just three hundredths.

Ducati rider Chaz Davies and Savadori will share the front row with the poleman, Savadori making it into the top three in qualifying for the first time in his career.

Sykes' teammate Rea had to settle for fourth, beating Giugliano by just 0.001s.

Jordi Torres ended up sixth, closely followed by Superpole 1 winner Nicky Hayden and MV Agusta rider Leon Camier.

Yamaha's sole entrant Cameron Beaubier secured ninth, 1.9s off the pace, narrowly edging out the Ducati of Xavi Fores and Karel Abraham, who crashed during the session.

Second Honda rider Michael Van der Mark failed to advance from SP1 and will only line up 13th on the grid.

Qualifying results

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:26.712
2	Chaz Davies	Ducati Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	1:27.572
3	Lorenzo Savadori	Ioda Racing Project	Aprilia RSV4 RF	1:27.591
4	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:27.601
5	Davide Giugliano	Ducati Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	1:27.602
6	Jordi Torres	Althea Racing	BMW S1000 RR	1:28.046
7	Nicky Hayden	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR SP	1:28.127
8	Leon Camier	MV Agusta	MV Agusta 1000 F4	1:28.409
9	Cameron Beaubier	Crescent Racing	Yamaha YZF-R1	1:28.617
10	Xavi Fores	Barni Racing Team	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	1:28.663
11	Karel Abraham	Team Milwaukee	BMW S1000 RR	1:30.345
12	Michael van der Mark	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR SP	1:28.806
13	Alex de Angelis	Ioda Racing Project	Aprilia RSV4 RF	1:28.866
14	Josh Brookes	Team Milwaukee	BMW S1000 RR	1:29.029
15	Roman Ramos	Team Go Eleven	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:29.289
16	Luca Scassa	VFT Racing	Ducati 1199 Panigale R	1:29.377
17	Anthony West	Team Pedercini	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:29.377
18	Markus Reiterberger	Althea Racing	BMW S1000 RR	1:29.406
19	Dominic Schmitter	Grillini SBK Team	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:30.275
20	Mathieu Lussiana	Team Aspi	BMW S1000 RR	1:30.635
21	Saeed Al Sulaiti	Team Pedercini	Kawasaki ZX-10R	1:31.378
22	Pawel Szkopek	Team Toth	Yamaha YZF-R1	1:31.742
23	Imre Toth	Team Toth	Yamaha YZF-R1	1:34.549
	Alex Lowes	Crescent Racing	Yamaha YZF-R1
	Sheridan Morais	VFT Racing	Ducati 1199 Panigale R