Phillip Island WSBK: Bautista beats Rea to pole

Ducati rider Bautista, who wrapped up his first WSBK title with a round to spare last time out in Indonesia, was the only rider to break the 90-second barrier at the Australian track as he topped the timesheets on a 1m29.815s.

That was enough to edge out the Kawasaki of Rea by a little over two tenths of a second, ending a pole drought dating back to June's Misano round.

After rain hit the circuit ahead of Saturday morning's third practice session, the track had dried out in time for the 15-minute Superpole session, with the times in the opening runs immediately bettering those set on Friday.

Bautista topped the opening runs as he set the initial pace with a 1m30.304s, with Rea his nearest rival.

The six-time champion briefly took over at the top as he began his second run with a 1m30.026s, but that was soon beaten by Bautista's best lap, and the arrival of spots of rain in the closing minutes of the session appeared to hamper Rea's efforts to go even faster.

Alex Lowes was third-fastest on the second Kawasaki around the track where he scored what remains his first and only win with the team on WSBK's last visit to Australia in early 2020, just 0.027s shy of Rea.

Toprak Razgatlioglu never looked like a genuine pole threat on the Yamaha and had to settle for fourth place, four tenths off the pace, ahead of teammate Andrea Locatelli and the satellite GRT bike of Garrett Gerloff.

Rebounding from suffering a concussion in Indonesia, Go Eleven Ducati man Philipp Oettl was an impressive seventh-fastest, beating the second works V4 R Panigale of Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Honda pair Xavi Vierge and Tetsuta Nagashima - standing in for the injured Iker Lecuona - completed the top 10, with the Japanese rider suffering a late fall at the newly-renamed Miller corner (Turn 4).

BMW's top performer was Scott Redding in 12th, while Bonovo BMW man Eugene Laverty was 13th in his final WSBK qualifying session before retirement.

World Superbike Phillip Island - Superpole results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'29.815
2	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'30.026	0.211
3	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'30.053	0.238
4	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'30.243	0.428
5	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'30.580	0.765
6	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'30.727	0.912
7	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	1'30.963	1.148
8	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'31.106	1.291
9	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	1'31.307	1.492
10	7	Tetsuta Nagashima	Honda	1'31.339	1.524
11	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	1'31.406	1.591
12	45	Scott Redding	BMW	1'31.444	1.629
13	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	1'31.494	1.679
14	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'31.613	1.798
15	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'31.738	1.923
16	12	Xavi Fores	Ducati	1'31.767	1.952
17	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda	1'32.075	2.260
18	76	Loris Baz	BMW	1'32.122	2.307
19	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	1'32.270	2.455
20	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	1'32.642	2.827
21	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	1'33.447	3.632
	11	Kyle Smith	Kawasaki	1'34.645	4.830
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