Qualifying report
World Superbike Estoril
Estoril WSBK: Rea beats Redding for back-to-back poles
Jonathan Rea made it two pole positions from two events in the 2021 World Superbike season so far as he beat Scott Redding to the top spot in qualifying at Estoril.
Jamie Klein
Edited: May 29, 2021, 11:55 AM
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Kawasaki man Rea led the opening runs on a 1m36.635s in the 15-minute Superpole session, but it was ex-MotoGP racer Redding that was first to break through the existing lap record when he posted a 1m36.047s aboard his factory Ducati with four minutes to go.
Two minutes later however Rea struck back with a 1m35.876s, which was enough for him to claim the top spot in qualifying for the second weekend in a row.
Alex Lowes made it two Kawasakis on the front row with a time just 0.007s slower than Redding.
Toprak Razgatlioglu had entered the session firmly among the favourites for pole after topping Friday practice, but the Yamaha rider struggled to put a lap together in Superpole.
The Turkish rider salvaged fourth on the grid on his final run, in which he had to force his way by the Go Eleven Ducati of Chaz Davies at the final corner, ending up 0.288s off the pace.
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) and the top BMW of Tom Sykes completed the second row.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi was again unable to match the pace of Ducati teammate Redding and will start Saturday's opening race from seventh, followed by the RC Squadra Corse BMW of Eugene Laverty and the Puccetti Kawasaki of Lucas Mahias.
Tito Rabat (Barni Ducati) rounded out the top 10, following in the slipstream of Redding for his second run and running spectacularly wide at Turn 1 after crossing the start/finish line.
Honda had a session to forget as Alvaro Bautista could only manage 12th on the grid, behind the second factory Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli, while Leon Haslam was down in 15th.
Davies will start down in 16th after losing time being stood up by Razgatlioglu on his last run.
UPDATE: A number of riders had their best laptimes deleted for not respecting yellow flags at Turn 1 (caused by Rabat's off), including Lowes, who therefore loses his front row grid spot.
Lowes now lines up in 10th place, while Razgatlioglu moves up to third on the grid ahead of Gerloff, Sykes and Rinaldi. Mahias, Rabat and Locatelli now make up the third row.
Laverty likewise lost his best time, slipping to 13th on the grid behind fellow BMW men Jonas Folger and Michael van der Mark, while Bautista has dropped all the way down to 18th.
Qualifying results (before penalties applied):
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 1 Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'35.876 2 45 Scott Redding
Ducati 1'36.047 0.171 3 22 Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'36.054 0.178 4 54 Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'36.164 0.288 5 31 Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'36.350 0.474 6 66 Tom Sykes
BMW 1'36.369 0.493 7 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'36.532 0.656 8 50 Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'36.604 0.728 9 44 Lucas Mahias
Kawasaki 1'36.863 0.987 10 53 Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'36.892 1.016 11 55 Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'37.031 1.155 12 19 Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'37.032 1.156 13 94 Jonas Folger
BMW 1'37.128 1.252 14 60 Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'37.193 1.317 15 91 Leon Haslam
Honda 1'37.399 1.523 16 7 Chaz Davies
Ducati 1'37.422 1.546 17 47 Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'37.501 1.625 18 3 Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'37.611 1.735 19 32 Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 1'38.512 2.636 20 23 Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'38.854 2.978 21 84 Loris Cresson
Kawasaki 1'40.008 4.132 22 76 Samuele Cavalieri
Kawasaki 1'40.288 4.412 View full results
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