Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu secured his maiden WorldSBK pole position at Estoril this morning, crossing the line with a seven-tenth margin over Leon Haslam with rookie Garrett Gerloff in third.
But it was disaster for title challengers Scott Redding and Jonathan Rea who both crashed at the top of the session. Redding was spat over the highside of his Panigale V4R while Rea lost the front of his Kawasaki a lap later.
The session was red flagged and restarted after Rea went down, but he did not make the re-start.
In 15th place he was outside of the top ten after Superpole for the first time since the 2011 season while although Redding did make it back on track, he wasn't in time for flying lap so will start stone last.
In a strong end of season confidence boost for the recent re-signing Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) was second on the grid and Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) took his first career front row start in third, after a late push right at the end.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was fourth, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) fifth and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) sixth.
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was the top Kawasaki rider, in seventh, with Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda), Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) rounding out the top ten.
Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Performance Racing) and Matteo Ferrari (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) were also high profile cashers this morning.
Barrier was declared unfit after suffering a concussion in his big highside, but was conscious as he went to hospital for more medical checks.
