Eugene Laverty claimed the first pole position of his World Superbike career in a strange end to Superpole at Silverstone. The Irishman was the chief beneficiary of a brief shower which turned a session which looked to be running to form completely on its head.
Only four minutes of Superpole 3 remained when drizzle began to fall but rather than let the session run to its conclusion, race direction threw a red flag and ordered a new twenty minute session under ‘wet Superpole’ rules. This was bad news for Kawasaki with Tom Sykes and Loris Baz enjoying a comfortable 1-2 but Laverty wouldn’t be complaining.
Any rain that fell was brief and light and conditions were at their best in the closing seconds when Laverty leapt to the top ahead of Jonathan Rea who had previously pipped Baz. Carlos Checa would steal second from the Ulsterman but Tom Sykes could only manage fifth after dominating the two knockout sessions and he was bewildered by the change in format.
“If those are the rules then that’s what happens but at least we got back to the second row and not the third. There had four minutes left of the session when they stopped it and turned it into a wet Superpole. I am far from happy because nobody even looked at a wet tyre.”
Leon Camier was another of the big losers when times were reset having looked set for a front row start but he was eventually demoted to seventh by Chaz Davies and was far from pleased with the day’s events.
“I’m really upset by what happened in Superpole, but it is what it is and we have to accept it. We have been second or third in every session so far this weekend and I was third in Superpole 3, which I thought was good enough, but typically with how our luck seems to go, it sort of half dribbled at the wrong time and my time didn’t count. The few spots of rain didn’t affect us as we had already done the lap-time, but even when I was on my lap it wasn’t enough to slow me down, but they decided to stop it and end the session anyway – which was really frustrating.”
| 2013 eni Superbike World Championship – Round Nine: Silverstone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superpole Result | ||||
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Best Time |
| 1 |  Eugene Laverty |
Aprilia | Aprilia Racing Team | 2:04.730 |
| 2 |  Carlos Checa |
Ducati | Team Ducati Alstare | 2:04.949 |
| 3 |  Jonathan Rea |
Honda | PATA Honda World Superbike | 2:05.078 |
| 4 |  Loris Baz |
Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 2:05.105 |
| 5 | Tom Sykes |
Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 2:05.949 |
| 6 | Chaz Davies |
BMW | BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK | 2:06.369 |
| 7 | Leon Camier |
Suzuki | FIXI Crescent Suzuki | 2:06.775 |
| 8 | Sylvain Guintoli |
Aprilia | Aprilia Racing Team | No Time |
| 9 |  Davide Giugliano |
Aprilia | Althea Racing | No Time |
| Eliminated In SP2 | ||||
| 10 | Jules Cluzel |
Suzuki | FIXI Crescent Suzuki | 2:05.011 |
| 11 |  Max Neukirchner |
Ducati | MR-Racing | 2:05.492 |
| 12 | Leon Haslam |
Honda | PATA Honda World Superbike | 2:05.573 |
| Eliminated In SP1 | ||||
| 13 | Ayrton Badovini |
Ducati | Team Ducati Alstare | 2:05.492 |
| 14 | Michel Fabrizio |
Aprilia | Red Devils Roma | 2:05.593 |
| 15 | Marco Melandri |
BMW | BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK | 2:13.317 |
| Failed To Qualify For Superpole | ||||
| 16 |  Mark Aitchison |
Kawasaki | Pedercini Team | 2:07.743 |
| 17 | Federico Sandi |
Kawasaki | Pedercini Team | 2:08.106 |
| 18 | Vittorio Iannuzzo |
BMW | Grillini Dentalmatic SBK | 2:09.543 |
