Qualifying report
World Superbike Estoril
Estoril WSBK: Rea beats lap record for first pole of 2022
Kawasaki rider Jonathan Rea smashed the Estoril lap record to claim his first pole position of the 2022 World Superbike season, beating title rivals Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista in Saturday qualifying.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: May 21, 2022, 11:24 AM
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Rea was quick out of the blocks in the 15-minute session, immediately lowering Razgatlioglu’s FP3 benchmark by two tenths with a time of 1m36.030s.
Reigning champion Razgatlioglu sat second behind Rea after the first runs on a 1m36.209s, while Bautista was a lowly seventh as the riders headed to the pits for a fresh set of tyres.
A major jump in pace was seen across the board in the final five minutes of qualifying, with Rea the biggest gainer as he found nearly seven tenths on his next flying lap to break the circuit record and cement his position at the top of the order.
Razgatlioglu tried his best to dethrone his Kawasaki rival and completed two flying laps in a bid to continue to his pole run in 2022. But the Yamaha rider had to settle for second, falling short of Rea's pole time of 1m35.346s by 0.091s.
Bautista was able to find a heap of time on his second run but could only qualify third on the factory Ducati, over six tenths down on Rea’s chart-topping time.
Scott Redding delivered the best qualifying performance of his short BMW stint to grab fourth on the grid, trailing Bautista - his replacement at Ducati - by just 0.016s.
Andrea Locatelli qualified a strong fifth on the second factory Yamaha, with Bautista’s teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi not far behind on the other works Ducati.
Honda rider Iker Lecuona provisionally sat third after the first runs but slipped to seventh at the end of the session, although he did beat the factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes by a tenth of a second.
Eugene Laverty emerged as the top independent rider on his Bonovo BMW bike, edging out the Puccetti Kawasaki of Lucas Mahias as the two completed the top 10.
Qualifying 11th was Xavi Vierge on the second of the factory Hondas, while Laverty’s teammate Loris Baz finished 12th after running off track with just two minutes left on the clock.
Garrett Gerloff didn’t take part in qualifying and will sit out the remainder of the weekend following a major crash in third practice earlier on Saturday morning.
He joins BMW’s Michael van der Mark and Go Eleven Ducati rider Philipp Oettl on the list of riders forced out of the third round of the championship due to injuries.
Estoril WSBK - Qualifying results:
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 65 Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'35.346 2 1 Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'35.437 0.091 3 19 Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 1'35.963 0.617 4 45 Scott Redding
BMW 1'35.979 0.633 5 55 Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'36.198 0.852 6 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'36.236 0.890 7 7 Iker Lecuona
Honda 1'36.433 1.087 8 22 Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'36.538 1.192 9 50 Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'36.659 1.313 10 44 Lucas Mahias
Kawasaki 1'36.674 1.328 11 97 Xavi Vierge
Honda 1'36.747 1.401 12 76 Loris Baz
BMW 1'36.755 1.409 13 3 Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'36.980 1.634 14 47 Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'37.015 1.669 15 29 Luca Bernardi
Ducati 1'37.105 1.759 16 17 Marvin Fritz
Yamaha 1'37.124 1.778 17 12 Xavi Fores
Ducati 1'37.521 2.175 18 23 Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'37.775 2.429 19 36 Leandro Mercado
Honda 1'37.867 2.521 20 35 Hafizh Syahrin
Honda 1'38.065 2.719 21 32 Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 1'38.436 3.090 22 52 Oliver Konig
Kawasaki 1'38.709 3.363 View full results
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