2022 World Superbike Misano, Italy - Superpole Results

Alvaro Bautista has taken his first World Superbike pole since 2019 after narrowly getting the better of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea in Misano. 

Looking to bounce back from a disappointing FP3 where Rea was unable to match Bautista or Razgatlioglu, the six-time World Superbike champion managed to slot into second behind Bautista.

Rea was then bumped down to third as Razgatlioglu came across the line to set the fastest lap of the weekend thus far. 

Following a brilliant FP3, Iker Lecuona’s fourth World Superbike Superpole session took a much different turn as he crashed in sector one. This was after setting a lap good enough for seventh.

For all of BMW’s well-documented struggles in 2022, Scott Redding was doing his utmost to extract every ounce of performance from his M 1000 RR - the British rider was fourth after the opening run. 

As Bautista and Razgatlioglu returned to pit lane, Rea opted to stay out as he went quickest with a time of 1:35.523s. 

With the Q tyres now fitted, Bautista was first to set a new benchmark time. The Aruba.it Ducati rider blasted to the top with a time of 1:33.328s. 

As Christophe Ponsson crashed at turn 10, Razgatlioglu improved to go within two tenths of Bautista. 

Rea also went faster, as did Alex Lowes who was following his team-mate closely, however, neither Kawasaki was a match for Bautista who secured his first pole since 2019.

Misano World Superbike Records

Fastest ever lap - Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki Racing Team 1:33.416s (2021)

Fastest Race lap - Michael Ruben Rinaldi ITA Aruba.it Ducati 1:34.356s (2021) 

2021 Race Winners 

Race 1 - Michael Ruben Rinaldi ITA Aruba.it Ducati

Superpole Race - Michael Ruben Rinaldi ITA Aruba.it Ducati

Race 2 - Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha

Bautista continues Misano World Superbike domination in FP3

As the only rider who failed to improve during FP2, Andrea Locatelli wasted no time in showing his pace - the Italian set a time of 1:34.711s to go quickest from Alex Lowes. 

Locatelli then lowered the benchmark time by another three tenths as he moved four tenths clear of Axel Bassani. 

With the ‘big three’ yet to show their hand, Bautista made sure to change that as he leaped to the front of the leaderboard. 

After leading the way on Friday’s combined times, Bautista continued to look strong, as did Ducati.  

In what was a big theme from Friday, deleted laps due to exceeding track limits continued to hamper riders. 

Loris Baz was the first to see a fast lap deleted before Lecuona suffered the same fate. 

Following that theme, Luca Bernardi endured a disastrous start to FP3 as the World Superbike rookie completed four laps, none of which stood due to going beyond track limits. The Ducati rider finally set a time of 1:36.363s to go P18. 

With Razgatlioglu and Rea nowhere to be seen regarding the fastest times, Bautista hammered home his advantage as he set the first sub 1m 34s lap of the weekend. 

The Aruba.it Ducati rider’s time of 1:33.790s was also six tenths clear of Locatelli in second. 

Yet to show podium potential so far this weekend, FP3 saw Lecuona announce himself as a real threat after going +0.005s off Bautista’s stunning time.

It wasn’t just Lecuona showing serious pace as fellow rookie Oettl also broke the 1m 34s barrier to go P3. 

Remaining World Superbike Misano weekend schedule 

Saturday 

13:00 Race 1

Sunday 

08:00-08:15 Warm-up 

10:00 Superpole Race 

14:15 Race 2