Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea broke the Donington Park WorldSBK lap record in the Tissot Superpole session this morning (Saturday), as the six-time champion secured pole position for the first race of the weekend later today.

Rea led the session throughout, with his first lap of 1m26.687s coming close to breaking the pre-existing lap record set by Tom Sykes in 2017 (1m26.641s).

He then shaved three hundredths of a second off his time on the next lap to set a 1m26.657s that edged him closer to the record, and then smashed it with three minutes to go. That lap of 1m26.230s lowered the benchmark further four tenths of a second, only for the Northern Irishman to go even faster with a minute remaining, very nearly breaking into them 1m25s bracket.  

His pole position time of 1m26.080s was over a quarter of a second clear of teammate and local man Alex Lowes, who nudged ahead of Yamaha's reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu with a minute remaining.

The Turkish ace had to settle for third after failing to improve on his final lap, and was 0.008s faster than BMW's Scott Redding, who had shadowed Rea for much of the session.

Championship leader Alvaro Bautista was fifth for Ducati, over six tenths away from Rea's rapid pace and nearly three tenths faster than teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Iker Lecuona was the lead Honda rider in seventh ahead of GRT Yamaha's FP3 pace-setter Garrett Gerloff.

Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) and Axel Bassani (Ducati) completed the top-10, with the first WorldSBK race of the weekend due to start at 2pm UK time.

Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Donington Park, Tissot Superpole result:
1. Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, 1m26.080s
2. Alex Lowes, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, +0.273s
3. Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK, +0.426s
4. Scott Redding, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, +0.434s
5. Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati, +0.656s
6. Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Arubia.it Racing Ducati, +0.931s
7. Iker Lecuona, Team HRC Honda, +0.958s
8. Garrett Gerloff, GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, +1.020s
9. Andrea Locatelli, Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK, +1.111s
10. Axel Bassani, Motocorsa Racing Ducati, +1.126s

Click here for full result. 

Tickets for the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship at Donington Park are available on the gate all weekend. Click here for full information.