He left room for his opponents in free practice Friday at Portimao, but when it mattered, he made his voice heard: Toprak Razgatlioglu won Superpole in the Portuguese round and will start ahead of everyone in Race 1, after a great lap that seems to have made him forget about Friday’s problems. With a time of 1’39”783, the championship leader is a candidate for the weekend’s big favorite.
The BMW rider inflicts a gap of just one tenth on Alex Lowes, who raises his head after a complicated Friday and grabs second place in qualifying: the British rider brings the Kawasaki to the front row with a thrust of the reins and precedes an excellent Danilo Petrucci, who continues to show himself at ease on the Panigale V4R of the Barni team and moves into third place.
Despite not yet being 100% physically fit, the Terni native outwits Nicolò Bulega right at the end, snatching the front row from him and relegating him to fourth position. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team rider opens the second row, but he too is struggling with a less than top physique. Yesterday he was in fact ill and limited the damage with fourth place, ahead of Michael van der Mark, who takes the BMW to fifth position.
The Dutchman is placed between the two Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders, with Alvaro Bautista not going beyond the sixth fastest time. The reigning world champion seemed to have found a better feeling on Friday at Portimao, but in qualifying he is almost six tenths behind the poleman and will start from the third row.
To find the first Yamaha, you have to scroll down to seventh place, where we see Andrea Locatelli: the Bergamo native is the best of the Iwata representatives and precedes his teammate Jonathan Rea, eighth. Closing out the top 10 is another R1, that of the Swiss Dominique Aegerter, who will start from the tenth spot. Slipping into the Yamaha group is Garrett Gerloff, fresh from signing with Puccetti, but still with the BMW team and ninth with the Bonovo formation.
Another difficult qualifying for the other Italians outside the top 10: Axel Bassani is 12th with Kawasaki, while Andrea Iannone is 15th with the Ducati of the Goeleven team. On his debut on the Portimao track, the rider from Vasto is finding several difficulties and is unable to go beyond the fifth row. Even worse is Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who after a burst of energy on Friday, is only 17th in qualifying.
#SBK #Portimao #Topraks #paw #Superpole #Bautista #sixth
