Reigning WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea completed his pole position hat-trick at Misano this morning, taking his third qualifying top spot in as many rounds with a new record to boot.
Using the second of two allocated Pirelli qualifiers, Rea put in a 1’34.416 to grab the honours but was pushed hard by Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu who ended in second and half a tenth in arrears.
The last spot on the front row was taken by top Ducati rider Scott Redding, with first day fastest man Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba Ducati) fourth quickest at his home race.
All-time Superpole great Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad) made it four manufacturers inside the top five places, and the second row for Race One and then Sunday’s Superpole Race will see Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing) sixth off the grid, and on the second row.
Help from the slipstream and fast lines of Rea saw Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti) secure a strong seventh place in qualifying, with another privateer and rookie, Axel Bassani (MotoCorsa Ducati), eighth.
Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) and Chaz Davies (GoEleven Ducati) completed the top ten.
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) had a crash in Superpole, but after a sanction from the Estoril round he will start race one from pitlane in any case and the Superpole race tomorrow from the back of the grid as he did not set a time.
Eugene Laverty (RC Squadra Corse BMW) suffered a heavy crash in the early morning FP3 session and missed Superpole after going to the medical centre. He has been taken to hospital for an MRI scan of his lower back.
