WSBK Supersport Portimão Superpole: González sanctioned, Cluzel inherits pole position!

The French driver confirmed during the Superpole in the Supersport category that he was indeed back in business. At the forefront since the start of the weekend, the GMT94 driver set the best time at the end of the qualifying session after the downgrade of Manuel González, who had initially won pole position.

The serious things started this morning in the Supersport category, with the Superpole taking place. Many drivers could claim pole position in Portimão, starting of course with the championship leader, Dominique Aegerter, but also Manuel González and Jules Cluzel, the fastest drivers yesterday during the first day and both holders of the best time during one of the free practice sessions organized.

Their performances were therefore scrutinized with great attention during the qualifying session which was held this morning. If Cluzel immediately resumed his pace displayed the day before, moving to the front without losing the slightest moment during the 30 minutes of driving, other drivers came to join the hunt for the best time.

 

Failure to respect yellow flags for González

This was particularly the case for Can Öncü, for a long time at the top of the hierarchy, before giving way to Cluzel, González and Aegerter. For a few moments we believed that the young Spanish driver, already the youngest poleman in the category since his Superpole at Most at the beginning of August, had done it again here in the Algarve with the obtaining of a new pole position, but a penalty for non-compliance with the Yellow flags waved in the first corner removed the Spaniard from first position.

González sanctioned, it is therefore Cluzel who recovers first place. Returning to business last week in Jerez, the native of Montluçon delivered a top-notch performance and it will be interesting to see if he manages to keep up the pace over the entire length of a race, in order to ward off bad luck. and why not go for a first victory this season.

 

Aegerter in good position to increase its lead over Odendaal

Cluzel will be joined on the front row by Aegerter, the Swiss driver who is getting closer and closer to a title in the category. The latter is in fact ideally positioned to further increase his lead in the championship over Steven Odendaal, who has 62 points spent and failed to qualify better than seventh.

The Finn Niki Tuuli seizes the last slot available on the front row, and thus confirms his great progress in the last rounds (with two podiums in the last three races contested), ahead of Gonzalez, finally fourth, Öncü and Raffaele de Rosa .

Odendaal will therefore take the third row of the grid ahead of Federico Caricasulo and Philipp Öttl, who will have a lot to do in the race if he wants to preserve his third place in the championship against González (the German only has one point ahead of the Spaniard in the general classification). Yari Montella completes the top 10.

Supersport Portimão – Superpole:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com