Bautista on pole position in Argentina in slippery conditions

Full Argentina WorldSBK qualifying results

Alvaro Bautista has claimed his first pole position since the Assen round in a hectic session for all riders due to tricky conditions at Circuito San Juan Villicum.

Bautista on pole position in Argentina in slippery conditions

Full Argentina WorldSBK qualifying results

Alvaro Bautista has claimed his first pole position since the Assen round in a hectic session for all riders due to tricky conditions at Circuito San Juan Villicum.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider, who conceded the World Superbike title last time out at Magny-Cours to Jonathan Rea, produced an early 1m 40.771s to take provisional pole position using race tyres during his opening run.

But with track conditions remaining incredibly dusty and slippery, and appearing to get worse as the track temperature increased, Bautista duly retained pole by 0.125s from Michael van der Mark on the Pata Yamaha.

The newly-crowned five-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea did improve late on but remained in third place for Kawasaki ahead of Puccetti Kawasaki’s Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Alex Lowes takes the middle slot of the second row for Pata Yamaha in front of an impressive charge from Michael Ruben Rinaldi on the Barni Ducati.

Chaz Davies made a last-lap gamble back to the race tyre looking to find grip solutions with his factory Ducati and he heads up row three as Alessandro Delbianco claimed his best-ever dry weather qualifying result in eighth place for Althea Honda.

Sandro Cortese completes row three for GRT Yamaha directly ahead of team-mate Marco Melandri with Leon Camier in 11th place for Moriwaki Althea Honda.

Jordi Torres lines up in 12th place for Pedercini Kawasaki ahead of lead BMW rider Tom Sykes.

Leon Haslam ran-on at Turn 7 during the close minutes of qualifying to see him stuck in 14th place for Kawasaki, with Ryuichi Kiyonari in 15th place for Moriwaki Althea Honda.

Eugene Laverty also struggled in the tricky conditions  in 16th place for Team Goeleven Ducati as he qualified ahead of Markus Reiterberger for BMW, with Loris Baz stuck in 18th place for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha after an out-lap off at Turn 15.

Leandro Mercado was unable to take part in qualifying due to an engine issue with his Orelac Racing Kawasaki.

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