Qualifying report
World Superbike Jerez
Jerez WSBK: Razgatlioglu beats Kawasaki duo to first 2021 pole
Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed pole position for the Jerez round of the World Superbike Championship, edging out the Kawasakis of Alex Lowes and Jonathan Rea in a tightly-contested qualifying.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Sep 25, 2021, 11:13 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Razgatlioglu arrived in qualifying with the fastest time of the weekend, set in FP3 this morning, but it was quickly usurped by Andrea Locatelli on the sister Yamaha with a 1m39.368s.
Lowes moved the goalposts further by posting a time of 1m38.730s, with Rea joining him on the provisional front row with a lap that was just 0.005s slower than his teammate.
With five minutes to go, the Kawasaki duo and Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi were the only riders to break the 1m39s barrier, while Razgatlioglu slipped outside the top 10 with his previous time of 1m40.355s.
A Kawasaki 1-2 on the grid appeared certain when Lowes and Rea managed to find more on their second runs, with the former improving to a 1m38.539s to put himself on provisional pole for the opening race later on Saturday.
However, Razgatlioglu spoiled the party of Kawasaki right at the end of qualifying, setting a blistering time in the final sector to deny Lowes a first pole in WSBK since Assen in 2018.
Although the Turkish rider had trailed Lowes in the opening three sectors, he was able to beat the British rider by 0.027s over the course of the entire lap to secure his second-ever pole position in the championship.
Rea, who enjoyed an unbeaten run in qualifying in the opening eight rounds of the season, ended up third on the grid with a time of 1m38.661s - just over a tenth down on his title rival Razgatlioglu.
Scott Redding qualified fourth in the best of the Ducatis, a further 0.047s off the ultimate pace, with teammate Rinaldi and Yamaha’s Locatelli joining him on the second row.
Making his return to WSBK in place of the injured Chaz Davies, ex-MotoGP racer Loris Baz was the top independent rider in seventh on the Go Eleven Ducati, beating the factory Hondas of Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista with a time of 1m39.747s.
The top 10 was rounded out by Garrett Gerloff on the GRT Yamaha.
The BMW marque had a low-key outing in qualifying, with Michael van der Mark the best of the runners in 13th on the factory bike.
He was closely followed by Jonas Folger, riding for the satellite Bonovo MGM team, and Eugene Laverty - who is deputising for Tom Sykes following his crash in the Barcelona race last week.
Ahead of qualifying, it was announced that Puccetti Kawasaki rider Lucas Mahias will sit out the rest of the season after a crash in Assen in July left him with a broken left scaphoid.
Although Mahias has contested every WSBK round since then and even took part in Jerez practice on Friday, the Frenchman has decided to skip the final three rounds of the season to fully recover from injuries.
Puccetti will announce a replacement for Mahias in due course.
Qualifying results:
Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 54 Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'38.512 2 22 Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'38.539 0.027 3 1 Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'38.614 0.102 4 45 Scott Redding
Ducati 1'38.661 0.149 5 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'38.860 0.348 6 55 Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'39.056 0.544 7 11 Loris Baz
Ducati 1'39.322 0.810 8 91 Leon Haslam
Honda 1'39.423 0.911 9 19 Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'39.609 1.097 10 31 Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'39.747 1.235 11 36 Leandro Mercado
Honda 1'40.023 1.511 12 47 Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'40.081 1.569 13 60 Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'40.092 1.580 14 94 Jonas Folger
BMW 1'40.121 1.609 15 50 Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'40.206 1.694 16 32 Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 1'40.273 1.761 17 3 Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'40.367 1.855 18 76 Samuele Cavalieri
Ducati 1'40.433 1.921 19 17 Marvin Fritz
Yamaha 1'40.490 1.978 20 7 Andrea Mantovani
Kawasaki 1'40.795 2.283 21 23 Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'41.030 2.518 22 84 Loris Cresson
Kawasaki 1'41.255 2.743 23 83 Lachlan Epis
Kawasaki 1'42.626 4.114 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Jerez WSBK: Rea leads the way in Friday practice at Jerez
Next article Supersport 300 rider Vinales dies after Jerez crash
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Rachit Thukral
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
1 h
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
Aprilia considering manufacturer orders as MotoGP title fight intensifies
MotoGP
MotoGP
Indonesian GP
Aprilia considering manufacturer orders as MotoGP title fight intensifies
Latest news
Adrien Fourmaux confident of WRC drive despite 2027 uncertainty
WRC
WRC WRC 13 min
Adrien Fourmaux confident of WRC drive despite 2027 uncertainty
Ducati rubbishes claim 2026 MotoGP bike built specifically for Marc Marquez
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
34 min
Ducati rubbishes claim 2026 MotoGP bike built specifically for Marc Marquez
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
1 h
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe