UPDATE - WorldSBK Portimao Superpole Results | Rea pole after qualifying mix-up

Jonathan Rea secures a fifth pole position of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship season at Portimao as Alvaro Bautista reinstated to fourth on grid

Jonathan Rea - KRT Kawasaki ZX-10RR
Jonathan Rea - KRT Kawasaki ZX-10RR

The grid for the first WorldSBK Championship race at Portimao has been completely overhauled after six riders who had times deleted due to a yellow flag had their laps reinstated following an appeal to stewards.

With multiple riders - including WorldSBK Championship leader Alvaro Bautista - arguing they hadn't seen either a yellow flag being deployed or Nozane's errant Yamaha well off course, an investigation by stewards revealed it had been waved at a point unsighted by the riders.

As such, all six riders had their lap times reinstated to shake up the grid for both Race 1 and the Superpole Race up, even if the incident has no bearing on a static front row of Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alex Lowes.

However, there are implications for the title race with Bautista being lifted from ninth back to fourth. Another big beneficiary was Axel Bassani, who catapulted from 14th to sixth, while Scott Redding in got his quicker lap time back but remains eighth, Michael Ruben Rinaldi lifts from 11th to ninth, Philipp Oettl remains 12th, Lucas Mahias remains 15th and Luca Bernardi ascends to 19th

Those to lose out were Loris Baz (7th), Iker Lecuona (10th) and Garrett Gerloff (11th) having been placed fifth, sixth and seventh before the modifications.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Portimao, Portugal | Superpole Qualifying Results

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Portimao, Portugal | Superpole Qualifying Results | Round 9 / 12
Pos Rider Nat. WorldSBK Team Superbike Timing
1 Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1m 39.610
2 Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha Yamaha R1 1m 39.772
3 Alex Lowes GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1m 39.859
4 Alvaro Bautista ESP Aruba Racing Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1m 39.946
5 Andrea Locatelli ITA Pata Yamaha Yamaha R1 1m 40.000
6 Axel Bassani ITA Motocorsa Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R 1m 40.195
7 Loris Baz FRA Bonovo Action BMW BMW M 1000 RR 1m 40.242
8 Scott Redding GBR BMW Motorrad BMW M 1000 RR 1m 40.293
9 Michael Ruben Rinaldi ITA Aruba Racing Ducati Ducati Panigale V4 R 1m 40.305
10 Iker Lecuona ESP Team HRC Honda CBR1000RR-R 1m 40.342
11 Garrett Gerloff USA GRT Yamaha Team Yamaha R1 1m 40.497
12 Philipp Oettl ESP Team GoEleven Ducati Panigale V4 R 1m 40.526
13 Xavi Vierge ESP Team HRC Honda CBR1000RR-R 1m 40.624
14 Roberto Tamburini ITA Motoxracing Team Yamaha R1 1m 40.771
15 Lucas Mahias FRA Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1m 40.811
16 Jake Gagne USA Attack Performance Racing Yamaha R1 1m 41.161
17 Eugene Laverty IRL Bonovo Action BMW BMW M 1000 RR 1m 41.258
18 Kohta Nozane JPN GRT Yamaha Team Yamaha R1 1m 41.321
19 Luca Bernardi SMR Barni Spark Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R 1m 41.406
20 Michael van der Mark NED BMW Motorrad BMW M 1000 RR 1m 41.473
21 Hafizh Syahrin MAL MIE Racing Team Honda CBR1000RR-R 1m 41.741
22 Leon Haslam GBR TPR Pedercini Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1m 41.765
23 Marvin Fritz AUT iXS YART Yamaha R1 1m 41.912
24 Leandro Mercado ARG MIE Racing Team Honda CBR1000RR-R 1m 41.982
25 Christophe Ponsson FRA Gil Motor Sport Yamaha R1 1m 42.152
26 Oliver Konig CZE Orelac VerdNatura Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1m 43.840

* Riders with lap times reinstated in BOLD

Superpole Qualifying Report [before reinstated lap times]

Jonathan Rea has secured his fifth pole position of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship at Portimao after getting the better of pre-qualifying favourite Toprak Razgatlioglu in Superpole, while series leader Alvaro Bautista was reinstated to fourth after successfully appealing a yellow flag infringement.

Coming into Round 9 of the season keen to end a victory drought that stretches back to WorldSBK’s last visit to Portugal in Estoril (Round 3), Rea assured himself the best possible chance of going for glory by getting the edge on Razgatlioglu by just over a tenth of a second.

Stopping the clock in a lap record smashing 1m 39.610, pole position will act as a confidence boosting result for the Kawasaki rider given his Turkish rival’s searing single lap pace in practice.

Indeed, the final European event of the season has been identified as a pivotal event, with both Razgatlioglu and Rea knowing they need to make headway into Bautista’s vast series lead this weekend having slipped a respective 59 and 67 points adrift of their Ducati rival.

The pair had originally received a fortuitous boost ahead of Race 1 when Bautista was one of several riders to get their final efforts cancelled due to yellow flags waving at Turn 1 for a crash involving GYTR GRT Yamaha’s Kohta Nozane.

With officials allowing the session to run to the flag before deleting the laps of those unfortunate to come through Turn 1 after Nozane had slipped off, Bautista had been classified fourth initially, before being dumped to 12th. Further revisions proceeded to lift him to ninth.

Back at the front, Alex Lowes notched up his second successive front row start to make it two Kawasaki ZX-10RRs at the head of the grid, the factory KRT pair sandwiching the Yamaha R1 of Razgatlioglu.

Andrea Locatelli benefited from Bautista’s relegation to lead row two, the Italian hoping to reverse a recent trend of lacklustre form to invigorate his fight for fourth in the overall standings, while Loris Baz scored his and Bonovo BMW’s best start of the year in fifth.

Iker Lecuona and Garrett Gerloff were two of the big winners from the yellow flag infringements as they elevated from 10th and 11th to sixth and seventh on the grid respectively, ahead of top BMW rider Scott Redding in eighth and the unlucky Bautista.

Indeed, the yellow flag issues were a disaster all round for the Ducati contingent with Bautista, factory team-mate Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Motocorsa’s Axel Bassani all forced to rely on their slower efforts earlier in the session, dropping the trio  from fourth, sixth and seventh to ninth, 11th and 14th respectively.

Elsewhere, MotoAmerica champion Jake Gagne enjoyed a solid return to WorldSBK Superpole action on the Attack Performance Yamaha in 16th, while Leon Haslam - back on international duty with Pedercini Kawasaki - was 21st of the 26 runners.

REVIEW | Kawasaki ZX-10R & RR

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