WorldSBK Aragon Superpole Results | Razgatlioglu pips Bautista for opener pole

Toprak Razgatlioglu is well placed to pick up from where he left off from his title-winning season in 2021 after landing pole position for the opening round of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship at Motorland Aragon.

After a protracted winter period, the Alcaniz circuit sets the stage for the first battlelines of the new year to be drawn with Razgatlioglu and Rea’s fierce rivalry seemingly set to swell into a three-way with Alvaro Bautista joining the mix.

Indeed, with the Spaniard showing flashes of the form that took him to 15 victories in his rookie 2019 WorldSBK season on his return to the factory Ducati team in testing, he was again in impressive form during Superpole on home soil.

However, while Bautista looked to have secured pole with a record-breaking lap with just over a minute to go, Razgatlioglu would stop the clock a mere 0.006s faster just moments later to put the top spot out of his reach.

A confidence boosting result for the Turkish rider, who in 12 starts at Aragon has stepped foot on the podium just once, Bautista will also find joy in what is his best qualifying performance in three years.

An eight-time race winner at Aragon, Rea rounds off the front row some 0.2s adrift of the pole man, while Bautista’s Aruba.it Ducati team-mate Michael Ruben Rinadli heads up row two on the circuit he took his maiden WorldSBK win in 2020.

Alex Lowes and Andrea Locatelli square up next to him on the respective factory Kawasaki and Yamaha machines, while Iker Lecuona marked his maiden Superpole attempt with a creditable seventh fastest aboard the Honda.

In what is proving to be the unexpected standout performance of the weekend thus far, WorldSBK debutant and substitute Ilya Mikhalchik consolidated his eye-catching pace in practice to out-qualify his more experienced BMW team-mates for eighth on the grid. 

Deputising for the injured Michael van der Mark, the Ukrainian’s efforts are framed further by a lacklustre result for BMW’s big name signing in Scott Redding, who could only manage 16th on the grid for his first race on the M 1000 RR, three tenths behind his team-mate and slowest of the BMW quartet.

Axel Bassani enjoyed a step forward overnight to secure ninth on the grid on the Motocorsa Ducati, with Bonovo BMW’s Loris Baz ending up tenth having topped the timesheets in FP3.

Elsewhere, Garrett Gerloff, Philipp Oettl and Xavi Vierge start just outside the top ten, as just 0.4s covered seventh down to 16th.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Motorland Aragon, Spain | Superpole RESULTS