The pole in Portimao is for Johnny Rea. Thanks to a super lap of 1’39 “610, the Kawasaki Cannibal conquered the first place on the grid for Race 1, ahead of Toprak by 162 thousandths. The Turkish tried to the last, but had to give up. in the face of the superiority of the Northern Irishman, who has signed the all-time record.
Completing the front row is Alex Lowes, delayed by his teammate by 249 thousandths. On the other hand, who is left with a dry mouth is Alvaro Bautista. The Spaniard was canceled on the last lap for not respecting the yellow flags displayed in turn 1.
The Aruba bishop will therefore start from the ninth box, preceded by Scott Redding, while Rinaldi 11th, Bassani 14th, whose time was also taken away from him.
In the second row there is therefore Locatelli followed by Baz and Lecuona, 7th Gerloff, 12th Oettl, 16th Gagne.
11:26 Warning: lap canceled in Bautista for not having observed the yellow flags in curve 1. The Spaniard is therefore ninth, 11th Rinaldi, 14th Bassani.
11:25 Lowes arrives and takes the third position, while Bautista is fourth!
11:24 Rea conquers the momentary pole in 1’39 “610, trimming Toprak 162 thousandths. Locatelli is third instead.
11:23 Watch out for Rea, who lights up a red helmet in the first sector, resulting in two tenths better. In the second sector, however, his margin is reduced to only 97 thousandths.
11:21 The riders are now entering the track for the last assault on the Portimao pole!
11:20 The drivers are now in the pits to change tires and try the latest assault on pole.
11:15 Really incredible what the Turk did on his first attempt. At this moment Toprak seems to be doing another job, so much so that the first of the pursuers is half a second. He climbs to sixth position Locatelli, 12th Bassani. At the moment the world champion is the only one under the 1’40 “wall. The really curious thing about this is that Toprak did the round without soap.
11:13 Incredible Toprak: 1’39 “887! All-time record in Portimao. At the first attempt the Turkish trimmed Rea half a second, while Bautista was fifth at 651 thousandths from the top. Third Lowes, fourth Redding, 7th Rinaldi.
11:10 Here we are! Now the round starts with Baz the first driver to take to the track followed by Leon Haslam.
11:00 Ten minutes and there it is! 26 degrees in the air for qualifying, while 34 degrees on the asphalt in view of the session that will start at 11:10
10:45 In less than 30 minutes the Portimao qualification will start. There is great anticipation for this Superpole, where Toprak seems to be the favorite after what was seen in free practice.
In Portimao it’s Superpole time! At 12:10 Italian time, 11:10 local time, the qualifying session will start on Saturday morning. The spotlight is all on Toprak Razgatlioglu and the Yamaha, simply overwhelming at FP3 in the morning.
Thanks to a time of 1’40 ”121, the Turkish ruled the competition with a masterful performance, trimming over half a second to his teammate, Andrea Locatelli. In third position appears Johnny Rea, while Bautista did not go beyond fifth place, collecting 767 thousandths ..
A troubled session instead for Rinaldi, who broke the engine of his Ducati V4
