Jonathan Rea stormed to his fourth World Superbike pole of the season, while Chaz Davies will start ninth following a late crash in Superpole at the Algarve circuit.
Rea made his intentions clear from the off, posting his best lap of the weekend on his race tyre run with a 1m42.385s, though Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty was not far off in second.
Fitted with the qualifying tyre for his final run, Rea lit up the timing screens with best sector after best sector, connecting them all to post a 1m41.430s to put him almost eight tenths clear of the field in pole position.
Laverty popped in a 1m42.197s on his qualifying tyre run to secure his best Superpole result of the year in second, while team-mate Lorenzo Savadori completed the front row.
Yamaha’s Alex Lowes just missed out on the front row in fourth, with Marco Melandri close behind in fifth. SP1 pacesetter Jordi Torres rounded out the top six.
Melandri‘s Ducati team-mate Davies looked like the only rider who could have put Rea‘s pole lap under threat as he set the fastest first sector on his final flying lap.
However, the Welshman pushed too hard into Turn 5 and unsettled his Panigale over a bump, causing the front-end to fold. This proved costly as it shuffled him back to ninth.
Michael van der Mark will launch from seventh later this afternoon and will have Honda’s Stefan Bradl alongside for company after the German achieved his best qualifying result of the year.
Xavi Fores completed the top 10 having come from SP1, while Leon Camier – who ended Friday’s action fourth overall – will start from 11th after suffering a technical issue with his MV Agusta.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes was absent from Superpole and will not start today’s first race after breaking a finger on his left hand in a crash in third practice.
Leandro Mercado was in line to progress into SP2 after going second quickest in the closing stages, but improvements for Torres and Fores shuffled him back to third in the session and 13th on the grid.
Raffaele De Rosa was almost a second off the pace of his Althea team-mate Torres in SP1 and will start 14th, with Roman Ramos unable to lift himself up from 15th on his final effort.
Riccardo Russo will be left ruing several off-track moments during the opening 15-minute qualifying segment after managing just 16th, with the the returning Ant West alongside in 17th.
Ayrton Badovini, Guandalini new boy Alessandro Andreozzi, WorldSBK debutant Takumi Takahashi and Ondrej Jezek complete the field.
