The Superpole at the Superbike Meeting in Portimão was won by Kawasaki star Jonathan Rea in record time. World Championship leader Álvaro Bautista only in 9th place.
Superbike World Championship Superpole is a traditional qualifying session where all riders have 15 minutes to set their best possible time. In Portimão, the drivers don’t have the sticky SCQ tire at their disposal, so the soft SCX race tire is used.
The weather at the start of the Superpole was sunny with pleasant summer temperatures. The fact that the conditions are excellent was proven by Dominique Aegerter with his record in the Superpole of the Supersport World Championship.
In the third workout Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) set the fastest time of the weekend in 1:40.121 minutes and was thus an outstanding 0.6 seconds faster than his teammate Andrea Locatelli. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) drove the third best time, World Championship leader Álvaro Bautista (Ducati) was fifth.
The first serious time after four minutes was Rea in 1:40.394 min, but on his first flying lap Razgatlioglu burned the fastest ever time in Portimão in 1:39.887 min in the asphalt.
For comparison: The Turk has held the pole record in the Autodromo do Algarve since 2021 in 1:40.219 min. The fastest race lap was driven by Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) in 2019 in the sprint race in 1:41.272 min.
With five minutes left, the Superbike riders made a second attempt with a new rear tyre. A maximum of two flying laps were possible. With a 0.5 second lead, Razgatlioglu took it easy.
Razgatlioglu lowered the record to a 1:39.772 min, but then Rea grabbed pole in 1:39.610 min and pushed the Yamaha rider into second place. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) completed the front row.
Locatelli (4th) leads the second row, followed by Loris Baz with the best BMW and Iker Lecuona with the best Honda.
Bautista’s best time was canceled because it was driven under a yellow flag. The Ducati star has to start the first race in the afternoon from the third row in 9th place. It was worse for Axel Bassani (Ducati), who was demoted from 6th to 14th position.
Philipp Öttl (Ducati) finished 12th on the grid, 1.1 seconds behind the best time.
As expected, the wildcard pilots found it difficult to present themselves on the demanding slope. Two-time MotoAmerica champion Jake Gagne (Attack Yamaha) was 16th on the grid, while endurance rider Marvin Fritz (YART) was 23rd.
| Ergebnis Superbike-WM: Portimão, Superpole | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | driver | Motorrad | time | Diff |
| 1. | Jonathan Rea | Kawasaki | 1:39,610 min | |
| 2. | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Yamaha | 1:39,772 | + 0,162 sec |
| 3. | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki | 1:39,859 | + 0,249 |
| 4. | Andrea Locatelli | Yamaha | 1:40,000 | + 0,390 |
| 5. | Loris Baz | BMW | 1:40,242 | + 0,632 |
| 6. | Iker Lecuona | Honda | 1:40,342 | + 0,732 |
| 7. | Garrett Gerloff | Yamaha | 1:40,497 | + 0,887 |
| 8. | Scott Redding | BMW | 1:40,532 | + 0,922 |
| 9. | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 1:40,538 | + 0,928 |
| 10. | xavi virgin | Honda | 1:40,624 | + 1,014 |
| 11. | Michael Rinaldi | Ducati | 1:40,677 | + 1,067 |
| 12. | Philipp Oettl | Ducati | 1:40,744 | + 1,134 |
| 13. | Roberto Tamburini | Yamaha | 1:40,771 | + 1,161 |
| 14. | Axel Bassani | Ducati | 1:41,000 | + 1,390 |
| 15. | Lucas Mahias | Kawasaki | 1:41,088 | + 1,478 |
| 16. | Jake Gains | Yamaha | 1:41,161 | + 1,551 |
| 17. | Eugene Laverty | BMW | 1:41,258 | + 1,648 |
| 18. | About Nozane | Yamaha | 1:41,321 | + 1,711 |
| 19. | Michael vd Mark | BMW | 1:41,473 | + 1,863 |
| 20. | Hafizh Syahrin | Honda | 1:41,741 | + 2,131 |
| 21. | Leon Haslam | Kawasaki | 1:41,765 | + 2,155 |
| 22. | Luca Bernardi | Ducati | 1:41,853 | + 2,243 |
| 23. | Marvin Fritz | Yamaha | 1:41,912 | + 2,302 |
| 24. | Leandro Mercado | Honda | 1:41,982 | + 2,372 |
| 25. | Christophe Ponsson | Yamaha | 1:42,152 | + 2,542 |
| 26. | Oliver King | Kawasaki | 1:43,840 | + 4,230 |