Assen WSBK: Razgatlioglu claims pole by nearly half a second

Razgatlioglu was the first rider to break the 1m34s barrier in qualifying, lapping the circuit in 1m33.846s on his very first flying lap to put himself well clear of the chasing pack led by Jonathan Rea.

Rea managed to usurp Razgatlioglu when he returned to the track for a final attempt, but his reign at the top turned out to be short-lived as the Turkish rider immediately fired back with a 1m32.934s, setting a new all-time record for a WSBK bike at the Dutch circuit en route to pole position.

Lowes ended up second on the grid in the 15-minute pole shootout but his time of 1m33.412s left him a massive 0.478s adrift of polesitter Razgatlioglu.

Six-time WSBK champion Rea had to settle for the third spot behind his younger teammate Lowes and facing a massive 0.687s deficit to reigning champion Razgatlioglu.

Andrea Locatelli qualified a strong fourth on the other factory Yamaha, beating Friday pacesetter Alvaro Bautista of Ducati by just over a tenth of a second.

Garrett Gerloff was the top independent rider in sixth, grabbing the final spot on the second row of the grid on his GRT Yamaha bike.

Qualifying seventh was former MotoGP rider Loris Baz, who set a time of 1m34.453s on his BMW satellite bike to beat the lead Honda of Iker Lecuona.

Baz was the only representative of the Bonovo MGM team in qualifying, with teammate Eugene Laverty being declared unfit for the remainder of the weekend following his high-side crash in Friday practice.

The top 10 was completed by Axel Bassani on the Motocorsa Ducati and Puccetti Kawasaki rider Lucas Mahias, both finishing over 1.7s off the pace in qualifying.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi endured a tough qualifying on the factory Ducatis in 12th, finishing behind not only his teammate Bautista but also the satellite Ducatis of Bassani (ninth) and Philipp Oettl (GoEleven, 11th).

Scott Redding sat inside the top 10 on his works BMW after the first set of runs in qualifying, but ran wide at Turn 8 after returning to the track for the final five minutes of the session.

Although Redding was able to escape the gravel trap, the off-track excursion left him a disappointing 13th on the grid - two places ahead of teammate Michael van der Mark.

Leon Haslam’s return to WSBK on the Pedercini Kawasaki yielded a lowly 17th place result in qualifying.

Assen WSBK - Qualifying results:

Cla	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'32.934
2	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'33.412	0.478
3	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'33.621	0.687
4	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'33.888	0.954
5	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'34.018	1.084
6	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'34.175	1.241
7	Loris Baz	BMW	1'34.453	1.519
8	Iker Lecuona	Honda	1'34.543	1.609
9	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'34.666	1.732
10	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	1'34.702	1.768
11	Philipp Oettl	Ducati	1'35.018	2.084
12	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'35.045	2.111
13	Scott Redding	BMW	1'35.047	2.113
14	Xavi Vierge	Honda	1'35.199	2.265
15	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'35.206	2.272
16	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	1'35.215	2.281
17	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki	1'35.590	2.656
18	Gabriele Ruiu	BMW	1'35.761	2.827
19	Leandro Mercado	Honda	1'35.956	3.022
20	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	1'36.000	3.066
21	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda	1'36.553	3.619
22	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	1'36.634	3.700
23	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	1'37.027	4.093
	Luca Bernardi	Ducati
View full results