Laverty surprises Rea for Portimao pole

Full WorldSBK qualifying results from Portimao

Eugene Laverty has stormed past Jonathan Rea to take Milwaukee Aprilia’s first-ever pole position in World Superbikes by setting a new outright lap record at Portimao.

Despite seeing Rea dominate during Friday practice for Kawasaki at the Portuguese circuit, Laverty bolted clear on his sole qualifying lap on the Pirelli Q tyre to take pole position with a 1m 40.705s – his first pole since the 2013 Silverstone round – and the Shaun Muir Racing-run squad’s first-ever in the series.

Rea only missed out on pole position by 0.060s but with his dominant free practice pace he remains favourite to cement his World Superbike championship momentum.

Marco Melandri, who topped FP4, completes the front row for Aruba.it Racing Ducati ahead of Lorenzo Savadori who impressed graduating from Q1 on the second Milwaukee Aprilia.

Michael van der Mark grabbed fifth place in the pole position shootout for Pata Yamaha to see Tom Sykes drop to sixth place for Kawasaki, with Xavi Fores heading up row three on the Barni Ducati ahead of Loris Baz (Althea BMW) and Jordi Torres (MV Agusta).

Toprak Razgatlioglu heads up row four for Puccetti Kawasaki in front of Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi with Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes tumbling to 12^th and last in Q2 after crashing out of his single qualifying lap.

Leon Camier was the unlucky 13^th-place rider missing out by three-tenths of a second to Q1 graduates Savadori and Baz.

Chaz Davies also missed out on Q2 and will line up 14^th on the grid for race one. The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider is returning from a second collarbone injury sustained during the summer break and appeared to struggle with the handling of his Panigale R on his final qualifying lap.