Toprak Razgatlioglu dominated the first-ever WorldSBK qualifying session at Balaton Park to claim pole by over half a second.
On the championship’s first visit to Hungary since 1990, Razgatlioglu set the benchmark with a time of 1:38.357 to outqualify Britain’s Sam Lowes.
Tito Rabat suffered a heavy crash at Turn 8, which forced the red flag to be thrown out with less than three minutes on the clock.
The session was restarted as the riders were given one lap to challenge Razgatlioglu at the top of the timesheets.
Although some riders improved, the Turkish rider improved his lap time by another hundredth to clinch the first-ever pole position at the Balaton Park circuit.
Lowes improved his final lap time to move second but was unable to challenge Razgatlioglu, as Andrea Locatelli set the final lap of the session to complete the front row.
Nicolo Bulega was unable to challenge Razgatlioglu’s time and will head the second row of the grid ahead of Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona.
Double World Champion Alvaro Bautista qualified in seventh to start on the third row of the grid and will be joined by Andrea Iannone.
Xavi Vierge suffered a crash after setting his first lap time of the session and qualified in ninth, as Jonathan Rea rounded out the top 10.
Remy Gardner improved on his final lap to move into 11th, while Alex Lowes crashed at Turn 1 on his final flying lap and could only qualify 12th.
Dominique Aegerter ended the session in 13th, outqualifying Garrett Gerloff in 14th.
Bahattin Sofuoglu completed the top 15 and rounds out the fifth row of the grid.
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