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Portimao WSBK: Razgatlioglu snatches pole from Rea

Toprak Razgatlioglu snatched a second World Superbike pole position in a row in qualifying for this weekend's Portimao round, beating title rival Jonathan Rea by three tenths.

Watch: WSBK: Razgatlioglu snatches pole from Rea

Razgatlioglu, who holds a 20-point championship lead with three rounds to go, broke the lap record around the Portuguese track with a pole effort of 1m40.219s aboard his works Yamaha R1.

Kawasaki man Rea had appeared to hold the advantage as he set the pace in third practice earlier on Saturday, and backed that up with the fastest lap in the initial runs, a 1m40.697s.

Rea subsequently improved to a 1m40.524s during his second run, eclipsing his FP3 benchmark by 0.029s.

But that lap proved no match for Razgatlioglu's final effort, as the Turkish rider benefitted from a tow from his Yamaha stablemate Andrea Locatelli to set a time a full 0.305s quicker than Rea.

Completing the front row behind the two title protagonists was Honda rider Leon Haslam, who continued the Japanese marque's strong recent form with a time 0.561s off Razgatlioglu's pace.

Scott Redding, who arrives in Portugal 74 points down on Razgatlioglu, was best of the Ducatis in fourth place, while lead BMW man Michael van der Mark incredibly made it five different brands in the top five.

Locatelli was sixth on the second Yamaha ahead of Alvaro Bautista's Honda and Garrett Gerloff on the GRT Yamaha.

Two Ducati riders completed the top 10, with Go Eleven substitute Loris Baz heading up the works bike of Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

BMW injury substitute Eugene Laverty crashed unaided late on at Turn 13, and will line up 13th behind Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Ducati) and Leandro Mercado (MIE Honda).

Tito Rabat was a disappointing 20th-fastest on his return to WSBK action on the Puccetti Kawasaki, 3.7s off the pace.

Qualifying results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'40.219
2 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'40.524 0.305
3 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'40.780 0.561
4 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'40.874 0.655
5 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'40.973 0.754
6 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'41.013 0.794
7 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'41.146 0.927
8 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'41.288 1.069
9 11 France Loris Baz
Ducati 1'41.384 1.165
10 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'41.405 1.186
11 47 Italy Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'41.593 1.374
12 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Honda 1'41.599 1.380
13 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
BMW 1'41.871 1.652
14 32 Spain Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 1'41.909 1.690
15 76 Italy Samuele Cavalieri
Ducati 1'42.167 1.948
16 3 Japan Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 1'42.208 1.989
17 84 Belgium Loris Cresson
Kawasaki 1'42.931 2.712
18 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 1'42.938 2.719
19 94 Germany Jonas Folger
BMW 1'43.264 3.045
20 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Kawasaki 1'44.000 3.781
21 83 Australia Lachlan Epis
Kawasaki 1'44.755 4.536
22 16 Italy Gabriele Ruiu
BMW 1'44.836 4.617

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