Image: Russell Colvin.

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes has taken pole position for the opening round of the 2016 Motul Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island during Superpole this afternoon.

Sykes jumped to the top of the order late in the qualifying session on a qualifying Pirelli with a 1m30.020s, placing him 0.078s ahead of Davide Giugliano (Ducati) and world champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki).

It was a positive return to the series for Pata Yamaha as the R1 pairing of Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes were fourth and fifth respectively.

Likewise, Honda teammates Michael Van Der Mark and Nicky Hayden finished in formation, the ex-WorldSSP and MotoGP title winners sixth and seventh on the grid.

The entire top 10 – filled by Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia), Chaz Davies (Ducati) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta) – was covered within a second.

Australian Josh Brookes (BMW) will line-up out of position 14 after setting a weekend best of 1m31.927s, while Mike Jones (Ducati) suffered with tyre difficulties and will start from 21st in race one this afternoon at 3:00pm.