Aruba.It Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega steamrolled to Superpole success at the WorldSBK season opener in Phillip Island.
The 25-year-old star continued his impressive week down under and produced a stunning lap time of 1.28.824s.
This week Bulega topped the timesheets in all four Free Practice testing sessions, all practice sessions for the race weekend and has secured himself the Superpole.
The 2024 WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu salvaged a second place for BMW despite all its testing woes in pre-season, but that was due to the Turkish rider using the tow of Bulega’s Panigale on one of his time attacks.
Team GoEleven rider Andrea Iannone rounded off the top three, maintaining his impressive pace from the week-long proceedings leading up to qualifying.
As always, the 15-minute session offered limited time for riders to set their fastest laps, determining the full grid for Race 1 later in the day and the Superpole Race on Sunday.
Riders had to go full throttle around the fast-paced streets of Phillip Island, a track notoriously famous for reaching speeds of over 100 miles per hour on average.
Team HRC rider Iker Lecuona highsided and crashed out at Turn 9 on his first run, causing a red flag just four minutes into the session. As Lecuona was stretchered off, the marshals cleared the debris from the track.
The pause in action didn’t last long, but with under 11 minutes remaining, riders had even less time to post important lap times.
Given its sheer pace in testing and in the early practice sessions, Ducati’s dominance continued as three further riders locked out the second row. The second factory Ducati rider of Alvaro Bautista qualified fourth, closely followed by the 2024 Independent’s Team champion Danilo Petrucci and Bonovo Racing’s Scott Redding.
The second BMW of Michael van der Mark recorded a steady seventh-place finish for the Bavarian brand, edging out Pata Maxus Yamaha rider Andrea Locatelli in the closing stages.
Kawasaki rider Garrett Gerloff kicked off his new WorldSBK venture with a ninth-place qualification, lapping quicker than Lincolnshire twins Alex and Sam Lowes.
Honda’s Xavi Vierge completed the session in 12th despite his teammates woes, as debutant Yari Montella qualified 13th on the second independent Barni Spark V4.
Axel Bassani settled for 14th spot on Bimota’s welcomed return to the paddock, bettering the lap time of Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter.
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