WSBK Jerez Superbike Superpole: Alvaro Bautista, ten out of ten!

Spanish Alvaro Bautista secures first place on the starting grid for the race which will allow him to win his second world championship in a row.

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Alvaro Bautista will start from the best position on the grid for Race 1 which could allow him to win his second consecutive Superbike title. During the fifteen minutes of qualifying he was unbeatable: Jerez for the Ducatista rider is like his garden: he has won here eight times and he intends to do it again. Toasting with the Ducati men from the highest possible step would be the ideal epilogue to a championship dominated from start to finish. See you today at 14:00 p.m.

Rea and Toprak up against the wall
During this qualifying session, the only two drivers who sometimes tried to worry Alvarito in this '23 season were slightly absent. Jonathan Rhea regained the lost grip, but after leading the session, he found himself in fourth position: a Dominique Aegerter found, the best Yamaha rider, and his teammate Alex Lowes, on the twin Kawasaki, seize the first row.

Even worse, Toprak Razgatlioglu, anchored in seventh place, will have to get out of the third row. Baptist will he fly to glory? Difficult to find weak points.

The return of Aegerter
The Swiss Dominique Aegerter didn't just win the Supersport World Championship twice. During his debut in the premier category, he showed himself very strong, except that he fell during the summer phase of the championship due to arm problems caused by compartment syndrome. Now that he's back in shape, he's showing flashes of excellence: Jonathan Rhea could have an uncomfortable reference in the Yamaha house, although in a different box, since Aegerter is under the management of GRT. Filippo Conti's team in Superpole also placed the former Moto2 world champion Remy gardner very high: fifth beat. Wet dust on the dry lap on the other hand for Rinaldi, Petrucci and Bassani, scattered between eleventh and fifteenth places. We will have to work hard to get things back on track this weekend.

A foregone conclusion?
In race 1, Alvaro Bautista can definitively close the games and celebrate its second Superbike world championship in a row. He only needs two points, that is to say to finish at least 14th, in the event of a victory of Toprak Razgatlioglu. If the Turk does not finish first, the Ducati rider is champion even if he retires. It is therefore practically a foregone conclusion for a championship that Baptist dominated from start to finish.

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Paul Gozzi

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com