The Turkish precedes the Spanish by 184 thousandths, while Dominique shines with a memorable front row on debut, 4th Rea then Oettl, Rinaldi, Gardner and Lowes, 9th Locatelli, 10th Petrucci, 13th Redding, 14th Bassani, 15th Baldassarri
Written by Riccardo Guglie… – Sat, 25/02/2023 – 03:38
Toprak Razgatlioglu flexed his muscles in qualifying at Phillip Island, taking his first pole of the year in 1’29”400. He dropped his hat to the performance of the Turkish rider, who got the better of Alvaro Bautista’s Ducati by 184 thousandths.
The Ducati Spaniard, protagonist in free practice, will start alongside the Yamaha rider, while in third position is a surprising Dominique Aegerter. A qualifying to remember for the rookie of the GRT team, able to bring Yamaha to the front row at his debut in the category.
Opening the second row will be Rea’s Kawasaki, lingered by the lead by 315 thousandths, followed by two Ducatis, namely those of Phillip Oettl and Michael Rinaldi. The Go Eleven bishop got the better of the Aruba one, while Remy Gardner opens the third row with Lowes and Locatelli alongside.
In tenth position Danilo Petrucci then Lecuona and van der Mark, 13th Redding, 14th Bassani followed by Baldassarri.
As can be seen from the time trials, Phillip Island was a tight qualifying with thirteen riders in just one second.
Now the wait is all for Race 1.
Checkered Flag!
13:24 Bautista improves at the end and is second ahead of Aegerter while Rea is fourth followed by Oettl and Rinaldi, Petrucci 10th!
13:23 Toprak on fire: best time for the Turkish rider in 1’29″400, but Bautista’s helmet is red in the first sector.
Twist! Aegerter is momentarily on pole in 1’29″635. However, there is Toprak who is lighting up red helmets everywhere.
13:22 Attention to Oettl: he is second at 59 thousandths from Rea!
13:20 Bautista improves and climbs to second position 115 thousandths behind Rea despite the traffic. Fourth Petrucci!
13:19 Bautista returns to the track followed by Petrucci
Here is the standings after the first stint!
13:18 The drivers return to the pits to change the tyre
13:16 Rea makes the Kawasaki fly: best time in 1’29″715 ahead of Rinaldi and Bautista! Toprak is only ninth for the moment followed by Gardner and Petrucci. Bassani 14th
13:15 Rinaldi is currently on pole with Bautista second 167 thousandths behind his teammate! 4th Lecuona. Watch out for Rea who is lighting up red helmets everywhere!
13:13 Times drop: Rinaldi the best ahead of Lowes, Locatelli, Oettl and Aegerter. 6th Toprak, 18th Rea.
13:12 Bautista’s mistake at the Miller corner which goes long. Leading the session was Gardner with Yamaha in 1’30″521 followed by Petrucci and van der Mark then Bassani.
13:10 Qualifying at Phillip Island now begins. Bautista immediately set off in front of everyone to have a clear track and take advantage of the current conditions, since he doesn’t rain.
13:00 Here we are! The first qualifying of the year at Phillip Island will start in 10 minutes. There is great anticipation for whoever secures the first pole position of the year. At the moment the rain is averted.
Lecuona and Honda surprise Bautista and Ducati in FP3 at Phillip Island
11:30 Saturday at Phillip Island began with the weather keeping teams and riders in check. First it rains, then it stops enough to shuffle the cards on the table. Although the last free practice session was conditioned by rain in the first few minutes, the rain then stopped, allowing the riders to enter the track.
At the end of the session, the fastest of all was Iker Lecuona, who set the time of 1’29”764 astride his Honda. For the occasion, the Spaniard preceded the Ducati of Alvaro Bautista, late by just 179 thousandths.
The two compatriots are the only ones under the 1’30” wall, pressed by the Panigale of Oettl and Rinaldi, while Rea is fifth with Gardner and Toprak behind him. In the top ten also the Ducatis of Petrucci and Bassani preceded by the Kawasaki of Lowes.
Here we are! At 13:10 local time, 3:10 Italian time, the Phillip Island Superpole will start with Alvaro Bautista intending to play the leading role. The Spaniard starts under the odds, but we are convinced that Rea and Toprak will do everything to ruin the Spaniard’s plans.
The last time we raced here in Australia, in November, it was the Ducati rider who took pole position on Saturday and then won the Superpole Race and Race 2 on Sunday. We’ll see if even in this story the qualifying script will be the same or not.
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