Phillip Island WorldSBK Superpole Results

Bulega completes practice and qualifying clean sweep, Toprak Razgatlioglu closes the gap in second

The big uplift in air temperatures on Saturday saw Superpole take place in hot and windy conditions. An early and painful crash, then a red flag stoppage, maybe said all that needed to be said about how Honda’s pre-season had been going.

The Superpole session got going again after a short delay, with the Ducati riders in the early mix.

And the late one, as Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) secured the first Superpole ‘win’ of the season, but only by 0.094 seconds from a clearly determined Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Bulega used an SC1 front and a D0922 (development) rear tyre.

Andrea Iannone (Team Pata GoEleven Ducati) took the last place on the Race One grid with his third best Superpole time, but he was a significant 0.442 seconds down on the lead Ducati of Bulega.

Ducati continued its near domination at PI so far with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) fourth fastest and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team Ducati) fifth. Just for good measure, prodigal Ducati son Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing Ducati) was sixth fastest in his first Ducati Superpole for literally years. Five Ducatis nestling inside the top six places tells a visual story of his this pre-season has been shaping up.

Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was the second BMW rider on the grid, with two Yamaha riders, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) and Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) inside the top nine places. The best new bimota entry, from Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), was tenth in its first Superpole, and just over a second from the best lap time.

The top Honda rider was Xavi Vierge (Honda HRC) in 12th place.