WSBK: “Wet” Superpole Leaves Top Riders Out to Dry During Qualifying at Misano

With the rain pouring right before World Superbike’s Superpole event at Misano, Race Direction at the Italian track called the session “wet” — thus reducing the knock-out style qualifying session from three rounds to only two. With the track drying rapidly though, the wet session looked a lot like a dry one, sans for some early-on damp patches along the racing line.

Tipping the balance just enough, the two-round dry qualifying found some top riders biding their time too long in the pits, which proved to have disastrous effects on their grid positions for Sunday’s double-header race.

Getting the best of Max Biaggi, Marco Melandri, and Carlos Checa, three out of five of World Superbike’s top points leaders in the Championship failed to move on to the second qualifying group. They will thus start from the third row, or farther, back on the grid — the most notable of which being Checa who will start 16th on Sunday.

As if things couldn’t get more interesting, Tom Sykes showed remarkable speed as he grabbed another Superpole, and almost set a new lap record for qualifying at the Italian track in the process. The Kawasaki Racing rider was over half a second faster than Johnny Rea, who will start from second on the grid, followed by the unusual pairing of Ayrton Badovini and Davide Giugliano.

Superpole Results from World Superbike at Misano, Italy:

Source: WSBK