WorldSBK Misano Superpole Results | Alvaro Bautista lands first pole since 2019

Alvaro Bautista will start a WorldSBK race from qualified pole position for the first time since 2019 as he ratcheted up the pressure on his title rivals at Misano.

Coming into this weekend’s fourth round of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship armed with a 17 point lead over Jonathan Rea and a 52 point advantage over defending champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, Bautista struck the last remaining box off his Ducati return checklist around the Italian circuit.

Setting his benchmark with just over three minutes of the session remaining, neither Razgatlioglu nor Rea - who complete the front row in second and third - were able to respond to the in-form Spaniard.

It marks the ex-MotoGP rider’s fifth career WorldSBK pole position and his since the penultimate round of the 2019 WorldSBK season in Argentina.

On row two, the so-called ‘second riders’ trio of Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes, Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi - a double winner in Misano last season - and Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli follow up in fourth, fifth and sixth.

Xavi Vierge got the better of Honda team-mate Iker Lecuona to place seventh in their own private battle, though the latter did well to recover to eighth after a crash early in the session at Turn 4.

Scott Redding completes row three of the fastest of the BMWs, with top privateer Axel Bassani rounding out the top ten.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Misano, Italy | Superpole Qualifying RESULTS