Buriram WSBK: Dominant Bautista takes first pole

Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista claimed his first World Superbike pole in dominant fashion, beating Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea by over four tenths of a second in qualifying at Buriram.

Bautista initially trailed early pace-setter Alex Lowes (Yamaha) in the 25-minute session, before bolting in a 1m32.718s flyer to move to the top of the timesheets.

He managed to shave off another tenth on his next lap, ending the first qualifying run comfortably quicker than the rest of the field.

The Spanish rider managed to find yet more time after returning to the track with 10 minutes to go, clocking a time of 1m31.912s to further extend his advantage.

Rea improved significantly in the final sector in an attempt to repeat his Phillip Island heroics, but fell 0.429s short of dislodging Bautista from pole position.

Lowes made a late improvement of his own to secure the final spot on the front row, while World Supersport graduate Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) impressed to qualify fourth in only his second WSBK weekend.

Leon Haslam was fifth quickest in the second of the factory Kawasakis, ahead of BMW’s Tom Sykes.

GRT Yamaha’s Marco Melandri and Team GoEleven rider Eugene Laverty were classified seventh and eighth respectively, while Chaz Davies qualified ninth, over a second down on his pole-sitting teammate.

The top 10 was completed by factory Yamaha rider Michael van der Mark.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'31.912
2	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'32.341	0.429
3	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	1'32.440	0.528
4	11	Sandro Cortese	Yamaha	1'32.608	0.696
5	91	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki	1'32.688	0.776
6	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	1'32.909	0.997
7	33	Marco Melandri	Yamaha	1'33.002	1.090
8	50	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'33.037	1.125
9	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	1'33.196	1.284
10	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	1'33.243	1.331
11	28	Markus Reiterberger	BMW	1'33.257	1.345
12	2	Leon Camier	Honda	1'33.269	1.357
13	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Kawasaki	1'33.466	1.554
14	36	Leandro Mercado	Kawasaki	1'33.529	1.617
15	81	Jordi Torres	Kawasaki	1'33.535	1.623
16	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'33.651	1.739
17	23	Ryuichi Kiyonari	Honda	1'33.758	1.846
18	99	Thitipong Warokorn	Kawasaki	1'33.817	1.905
19	52	Alessandro Delbianco	Honda	1'35.596	3.684