Rea scorches to Misano pole with Bautista down in fifth
Jonathan Rea secures a second consecutive World Superbike pole position as he looks to kick-start his title charge against Alvaro Bautista
Full Misano World Superbike Superpole qualifying results
Jonathan Rea has secured a second consecutive World Superbike pole position as he looks to kick-start his title charge against Alvaro Bautista who suffered his worst qualifying performance of the season.
The Kawasaki rider bolted clear of his rivals using the Pirelli qualifying tyre, notching in a 1m 34.596s, to go almost four-tenths of a second clear of Tom Sykes on the BMW for pole.
Rea’s closest challenger came from surprise package Sandro Cortese on the GRT Yamaha who grabbed second place with his final lap, 0.355s off Rea, pushing Sykes to the final spot on the front row.
Alex Lowes, the sole Pata Yamaha rider after Michael van der Mark suffered a weekend-ending crash in FP2, lines up in fourth place in front of World Superbike championship leader Alvaro Bautista who could only manage fifth place – his worst qualifying position of the season.
It proved to be a tricky session for all Ducati riders, with Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam completing row two in sixth place despite having a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, as Michael Ruben Rinaldi led Barni Ducati team-mate Michele Pirro plus Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Chaz Davies on row three.
Toprak Razgatlioglu will start race one from 10th place for Puccetti Kawasaki ahead of fellow customer Kawasaki rider Jordi Torres, while it was a tough qualifying for Marco Melandri down in 12th place for GRT Yamaha.
