World Superbike San Juan, Argentina - Superpole Qualifying Results

Scott Redding has claimed his first WorldSBK pole of 2021 after yellow flags cost pre-session favourite Toprak Razgatlioglu the chance to challenge the Ducati rider’s time. 

Title rivals Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea battled it out for provisional pole early on with Razgatlioglu able to better the Kawasaki rider by just over a tenth. 

A mistake from Rea on his second flying lap saw him run wide in sector two, while Razgatlioglu extended his advantage to three tenths. 

Andrea Locatelli, who positioned himself behind team-mate Razgatlioglu, managed to go third. However, Scott Redding went quicker than all three men with a mid 1m 37s time. 

Rea made another mistake at the start of his second run which allowed Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes to get ahead of him, while a late crash for Leandro Mercado meant Razgatlioglu and Redding were unable to improve due to yellow flags being waved.  

Free Practice Three

Toprak Razgatlioglu’s impressive showing at WorldSBK San Juan continued in FP3 as he finished four tenths clear of Scott Redding. 

There was a slight delay to FP3 for Razgatlioglu’s team-mate Andrea Locatelli as intense work was being done to the front end of his Pata Yamaha machine. 

While Razgatlioglu immediately set the pace, Scott Redding became the lone rider to crash during FP3 - lost the front at turn 13. 

Redding’s team-mate Michael Rinaldi then went fastest by just - 0.018s, while Chaz Davies had his FP3 cut short after encountering a mechanical issue. 

Rinaldi nearly followed Redding in crashing due to a huge moment on the entry of turn 17, however, the Italian was able to remain upright and instead run off into the gravel before returning to pit lane. 

Rinaldi was then replaced at the top by Razgatlioglu who set back-to-back sub 1m 38s laps. 

Rea, who was one of the first riders to begin the qualifying runs, momentarily went top before Garrett Gerloff matched his time. 

However, Razgatlioglu then set a new all-time lap record to go nearly four tenths quicker, while Redding split the two ‘main’ title contenders with P2. On his very next effort, Razgatlioglu set yet another new lap record by going a further tenth better.