Reigning WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea took his second pole position on the bounce at Misano this morning but was pushed hard by the GRT Yamaha of Sandro Cortese in second with series leader Alvaro Bautista off the front row for the first time this season.
Rea put in a 1’34.596 with his final lap which was enough to open up a near-half-second gap on the pack but Cortese reeled him in with a 1’34.951 which pushed BMW’s Tom Sykes - whose S1000RR is sporting a new exhaust and engine mods - back to third place.
After overnight and light morning rains, Superpole got underway on a basically dry track, with times around a second slower than 2018. Several top riders had their original best times deleted for exceeding the track limits, especially at turn one.
Alex Lowes (Yamaha) continued to come back well after his Jerez disasters, taking fourth place in Superpole, heading up race one’s second row of the grid.
Clear championship leader Alvaro Bautista (Aruba Ducati) was fifth, leaving him on a tricky second row starting position. Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) improved from tenth on day one to sixth in Superpole.
Local riders Michael Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) and wildcard team-mate Michele Pirro were the final two riders to get within a second of Rea, in seventh and eighth place respectively. Chaz Davies was ninth on his Aruba Ducati.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) completed the top ten, on a starting grid that was without the injured Michael van der Mark (Yamaha) who suffered wrist hand and rib injuries in his big Friday highside.
