Superbikes | Argentina round, Tissot-Superpole: Bautista gets his fourth pole

The penultimate pole of the season bears the signature of Alvaro Bautista: the Ducati rider, making his debut at the Circuit San Juan Villicum in Argentina, scores his fourth personal pole of 2019.

It was a strange Tissot-Superpole given that many drivers did not use qualifying tires and took to the track with caution at the start of the session due to the track conditions, which were still dirty in some places. Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) suffered a bad highside at the last corner: fortunately he got up in good condition.

With ten minutes to go, Bautista was still leading ahead of Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK).
The order remained unchanged, with Bautista therefore back on pole since last time in Assen.

Fourth and first Independent driver is Toprak Razgatlioglu. Alex Lowes finished fifth and both Pata Yamahas are in the top five, while Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team), sixth, secured the second consecutive row for the second time.

Chaz Davies will open the third row with the Welshman preceding the big surprise of the weekend Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) to his best Superpole of all 2019. Delbianco will start ahead of the GRT Yamaha WorldSBK pair formed by the outgoing World Champion WorldSSP Sandro Cortese and the 2018 poleman in San Juan, Marco Melandri.

Big names are outside the top ten, including 2013 WorldSBK Champion Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) who is 13th: his last absence from the top two rows dates back to 2015 at Magny-Cours. Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) will start from 14th place on his debut in Argentina, while Loris Baz is only 18th.

Below are the top six riders after the Tissot Superpole:

1.) Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1'40.771
2.) Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.125
3.) Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.140
4.) Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) +0.463
5.) Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.637
6.) Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) +1.290