Nicolo Bulega echoed the thread unfurling in the larger Superbike class as he matched Aruba.it Ducati stablemate Alvaro Bautista by dominating proceedings in the WorldSSP class, landing pole position at Misano by +0.6s.

The runaway championship leader arrives on both his and Ducati's home soil seeking a swift bounce back to form following his first DNF of the season last time out in Spain.

No doubt inspired by the sheer performance advantage being exerted by Bautista on the Panigale V4 in the 'ton-up' class, Bulega was in similarly commanding form to steer the Ducati Panigale V2 to a new lap record of 1m 36.495secs.

Not only that, Bulega was well clear of the chasing pack too, with Federico Caricasulo emerging as his closest - albeit distant - challenger in second, more than half a second adrift.

Despite the broad margins, Ducati still locked out the top three on the grid with Caricasulo shrugging off late technical issues on the Althea machine to book his place on the front row, while Yari Montella held onto third despite a tumble at the final corner.

Up to second in the standings following Catalunya, Marcel Schroetter remains poised in fourth as he bids to close down the 33 point gap to Bulega ahead.

He is joined on the second row by EAB Yamaha's Glenn van Straalen and MV Agusta team-mate Bahattin Sofuoglu, a winner last time out for the first time in Barcelona.

Youth gives way to experience on row three with 2017 WorldSSP Champion Lucas Mahias heading it up in seventh on the Puccetti Kawasaki, ahead of season veteran Simone Corsi - the Italian impressing on only his second WorldSSP appearance this season - and Jorge Navarro, who out-qualified Ten Kate Yamaha team-mate Stefano Manzi for the first time.

Among the Brits, Tom Booth-Amos was once more the quickest of the quartet on the Motozoo ME AIR Kawasaki, albeit with work to do from 17th on the grid. John McPhee gets away just behind in 19th, while Tarran Mackenzie a row further back in 22nd on the MIE Honda and Dynavolt Triumph's Harry Truelove will get away from 29th.

Misano WorldSSP - Superpole Qualifying Results