Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega will start from first on the grid for Saturday afternoon’s Aragon race after setting a new lap record in WorldSBK Superpole.
Bulega’s time of 1:47.840 was enough for him to take the Superpole session, 0.368s clear of Team GoEleven’s Andrea Iannone, with Alvaro Bautista rounding out the front row.
It was Iannone who set the early pace in the session, with his time of 1:48.202 putting him narrowly ahead of the Ducati duo of Bautista and Bulega.
Bulega was able to pick up the pace with just over two minutes to go and set a new all-time lap record with a 1:47.840 to head to the top of the timesheet, 0.368s clear of Iannone.
The Ducati rider’s time was enough to go unchallenged as he earned pole ahead of Iannone, with Bautista in third for his first top three finish in Superpole this season.
Bulega’s pole position means that he edges even closer to Toprak Razgatlioglu in the championship standings after the Turkish rider missed the previous two rounds.
Danilo Petrucci continued his momentum from the Cremona round by qualifying fourth for Barni Spark racing.
RoKiT BMW’s Razgatlioglu was declared fit after topping Friday’s FP1 session, and made a decent return to WorldSBK action by qualifying fifth.
Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes finished the session in sixth ahead of Pata Proteon Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli in seventh and MarcVDS’ Sam Lowes in eighth.
Iker Lecuona was ninth after receiving a tow from Honda teammate Xavi Vierge, as Garrett Gerloff rounded out the top 10 for Bonovo Action BMW.
RoKiT BMW’s Michael van der Mark suffered an engine failure in practice but was able to qualify 11th ahead of the second HRC bike of Vierge.
Pata Proteon Yamaha’s Jonathan Rea qualified 13th on his return to action ahead of fellow Brit Scott Redding, with Remy Gardner completing the top 15.
