Still him, still record: Alvaro Bautista is relentless on the Ducati home track, where he confirms himself as the man to beat and signs an incredible Superpole in 1’33”017. In a session that ended early due to a red flag due to a problem on Gabriele Ruiu’s bike, the reigning world champion beat his closest pursuer Toprak Razgatlioglu by almost two tenths and took the start at the pole at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli ”.
In front of the home crowd, Ducati is almost a monopoly, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi in third position. The driver from Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna pays two and a half tenths from his teammate and poleman, but the final blow is deprived of him by the red flag. Rinaldi thus closes the front row and the Aruba duo “surrounds” Toprak Razgatlioglu.
The Turkish rider is once again the only non-Ducati in the leading positions and stops 165 thousandths behind Bautista, starting from the second box. The Yamaha rider spoils the party at the Reds, slipping into the top 5, where we see four Panigale V4Rs, considering the two factory and two independent.
It’s a Danilo Petrucci in great shape what we see in his home round: after doing well in Friday’s free practice, he confirms himself in excellent shape also in qualifying, where he grabs the fourth fastest time and is the best of the independent riders. The rider from Terni of the Barni team precedes Axel Bassani, fifth with the Panigale V4R of the Motocorsa team. The two Ducati standard-bearers complete a top 5 that shows the great dominance of the red and leaves no room for their opponents.
With the exception of Razgatlioglu, second, Jonathan Rea is unable to overtake the Ducati peloton and has to settle for sixth position. The Kawasaki rider precedes the Yamaha of Dominique Aegerter’s GRT team, excellent seventh and second of the Iwata representatives. Iker Lecuona is eighth with the factory Honda, while Remy Gardner and Alex Lowes close the top 10 in ninth and tenth position respectively.
Andrea Locatelli trudges on, who can’t find the spark in front of his fans and doesn’t go beyond the 11th time, ahead of Scott Redding, 12th and best of the BMW riders. The last of the Ducati representatives is Philipp Oettl, 13th with the Panigale V4R of team GoEleven. So are the other Italians: Lorenzo Baldassarri is 17th, while Gabriele Ruiu is 21st after his bike had a problem forcing him to display the red flag. Luca Vitali is 24th.
