Rea converts practice pace into pole, Bautista P6
Full WorldSBK qualifying results from Portimao
Jonathan Rea has secured pole position at Portimao ahead of former team-mate Tom Sykes, while chief World Superbike title rival Alvaro Bautista could only reach the back of the second row in qualifying.
Full WorldSBK qualifying results from Portimao
Jonathan Rea has secured pole position at Portimao ahead of former team-mate Tom Sykes, while chief World Superbike title rival Alvaro Bautista could only reach the back of the second row in qualifying.
In the 25-minute qualifying session, Bautista had led the early times using race tyres before switching to the qualifying Pirelli rubber but having set his best lap time with three minutes to go it exposed the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider from slipping down the order.
The Spaniard was duly powerless to stop his rivals from jumping ahead of him with Rea storming to his fourth pole position from the last five rounds with an outright lap record of 1m 40.372s for the factory Kawasaki squad.
Fresh from signing a BMW contract extension, Sykes held on to second place after being moved off provisional pole by Rea in the final minute as GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese saw his impressive qualifying lap result in third place.
Leon Haslam will head up the second row for the opening race at Portimao for Kawasaki ahead of Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes and Bautista who was shuffled back to sixth place.
Jordi Torres made the most of a tow from Rea to take seventh place for Pedercini Kawasaki with Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha) and Markus Reiterberger (BMW) joining him on row three.
That left Michael van der Mark down in 10th place for Yamaha, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi 11th for Barni Ducati, while Chaz Davies dropped to a disappointing 12th place having secured victory last time out at Laguna Seca for Ducati.
After impressing in practice, Toprak Razgatlioglu failed to convert it in qualifying with 13th place for Puccetti Kawasaki but kept ahead of Team Goeleven Ducati’s Eugene Laverty.
Loris Baz saw his qualifying wrecked by a mid-session crash for Ten Kate Yamaha which relegated him to 15th place.
Leandro Mercado also struggled in 16th place on his Kawasaki but stayed in front of the trio of Honda riders in Takumi Takahashi, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Alessandro Delbianco with World Superbike wildcard Sylvain Barrier completing the starting grid in 20th for Brixx Ducati.
