The Saturday at the Circuit de Catalunya began with pole position for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. Tom Sykes (GBR) proved unbeatable in the Superpole on his BMW M 1000 RR as he claimed the sought-after spot at the front of the grid. In race one that afternoon, his team-mate Michael van der Mark (NED) was involved in the battle to reach the podium and finished fifth on the wet circuit. Sykes crossed the finish line in eighth place.

Barcelona. The Saturday at the Circuit de Catalunya began with pole position for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. Tom Sykes (GBR) proved unbeatable in the Superpole on his BMW M 1000 RR as he claimed the sought-after spot at the front of the grid. In race one that afternoon, his team-mate Michael van der Mark (NED) was involved in the battle to reach the podium and finished fifth on the wet circuit. Sykes crossed the finish line in eighth place. Jonas Folger (GER) from the Bonovo MGM Racing Team finished the first race in 19th position.



Sykes posted a time of 1:40.408 minutes, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than his rivals, to claim his third pole position with BMW in the morning Superpole qualification session, his 51st WorldSBK pole overall. Van der Mark qualified in ninth place. Folger finished the Superpole in 18th position.



The weekend at Barcelona had been dry thus far, but rain set in just as the grid was forming up for race one. The riders chose wet-weather tyres to deal with the conditions around the circuit.



Pole-sitter Sykes endured some bad luck at the start. His rear wheel started spinning on the paint as he pulled away, dropping him back down to 15th place. Van der Mark remained in ninth after the start, before starting to make his move up through the field. He had reached fifth place by lap two and moved into fourth with a great manoeuvre on lap seven. He was now battling for a podium finish and moved to within 0.1 seconds of the top three. When leader Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR / Yamaha) retired on the 15th lap, van der Mark was able to claim third for a while before dropping two places. Van der Mark then closed up on Jonathan Rea (GBR / Kawasaki) again during the final laps, before crossing the line in fifth place, six and a half seconds behind winner Scott Redding (GBR / Ducati). On lap one, Sykes moved up from 15th to tenth place. He then returned to the top eight on the next lap and completed the race in eighth position. Folger finished a difficult race in 19th position.


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