Tom Sykes gave Kawasaki its first pole position with the new Ninja ZX-10R today during a wet superpole session in Misano. Sykes beat out Carlos Checa, Jakum Smrz, and Marco Melandri to take the first position on the World Superbike grid.
Sykes was 7th fastest after the two qualifying sessions, but Sykes and the Kawasaki team found the golden settings for Superpole.
“That just makes it a little bit sweeter for me, having struggled to get a good dry set-up at some points this weekend,” Sykes said. “I took this pole in exactly the same conditions as last year at Imola. I want to give massive credit to Kawasaki Racing and Paul Bird Motorsport, because in those conditions we have a strong electronics package and that helped us today.
“Conditions were so slippery and we found the maximum. Tomorrow is another day but I am optimistic. I want to get a good start and go as fast as I can for 24 laps. I want to have a top six again, like in America, and today’s Superpole win was just a kind of added extra.”
The Kawasaki team was also celebrating the return of Chris Vermeulen. Vermeulen has been out for the majority of the 2011 World Superbike season with injuries.
“It has been good to come back to a race situation for all of us,” Vermeulen said. “We have a little bit of work to do with the bike and the times are so close here. We have improved every session and my gap to the front has been getting closer. It’s only 1.6 to the front after dry qualifying but only a second up to fourth place. It is very tight and I just need a little bit more confidence. Kawasaki has been working hard and the improvements can be seen because of Joan and Tom, but we just need to get a base setting and an understanding of the bike from our side."
