Aruba Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista has taken his second WorldSBK pole of 2019 this morning, setting a new Aragon best lap record but it was a disastrous session for the factory Kawasaki team.
Bautista put in a 1’49.049s lap to bag top spot on the Pirelli qualifying tyres to lead rookie Sandro Cortese by three-tenths with BMW’s Tom Sykes in third place even after running wide through the last turn on his quickest lap.
Reigning champion Jonathan Rea could only muster tenth place on the factory ZX-10R, finishing almost a second in arrears, while team-mate Leon Haslam was two places and four-tenths further back.
Late turn-two crashes from Ryuichi Kiyonari and Marco Melandri, and the resulting yellow flags, could have been a contributing factor to the grid positions as could off-track excursions from the KRT men.
Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes heads the second row after running wide on his last flying lap while Michael Rinaldo, who got a tow from Bautista on his fastest lap, jumped up to fifth place after being mid-pack for most of the weekend.
Eugene Laverty had challenged Bautista early in the session but slipped back to sixth even after setting a 1’49.722. Markus Reiterberger was seventh.
Chaz Davies looked to be struggling in the first laps, rolling around in 13th but managed to claw his way back to eighth with the qualifying tyre.
Jordi Torres was the fastest Kawasaki runner, taking the Pedercini ZX-10R to ninth and one ahead of Rea. Michael Van der Mark, on the second Pata R1, split the KRT bikes with Melandri in 13th.
Moriwaki Honda’s Leon Camier slashed his gap to 1.7s to the leader but it was still only enough for 14th place.
Top speeds
1 19 A. BAUTISTA Ducati Panigale V4 R 319,5
2 7 C. DAVIES Ducati Panigale V4 R 318,6
3 21 M. RINALDI Ducati Panigale V4 R 315,8
4 91 L. HASLAM Kawasaki ZX-10RR 314,9
5 60 M. VAN DER MARK Yamaha YZF R1 314,9
6 22 A. LOWES Yamaha YZF R1 314,0
7 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU Kawasaki ZX-10RR 312,1
8 50 E. LAVERTY Ducati Panigale V4 R 312,1
9 1 J. REA Kawasaki ZX-10RR 310,3
10 23 R. KIYONARI Honda CBR1000RR 309,5
11 33 M. MELANDRI Yamaha YZF R1 309,5
12 11 S. CORTESE Yamaha YZF R1 308,6
13 2 L. CAMIER Honda CBR1000RR 307,7
14 81 J. TORRES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 307,7
15 28 M. REITERBERGER BMW S1000 RR 307,7
16 66 T. SYKES BMW S1000 RR 305,9
17 36 L. MERCADO Kawasaki ZX-10RR 305,9
18 52 A. DELBIANCO Honda CBR1000RR 295,9
