2014 Portimão World Superbike Superpole Results: Red Flag In First Session

Qualifying for tomorrow's race took place in a warm and windy Portugal.

Three minutes into the first Superpole session, the red flags came out after Sylvain Barrier put in a 1'45.933. Claudio Corti dropped his bike approaching one of the many hills, landing after the crest in a blind spot while the bike slid further away. The risky spot meant the flags had to come out immediately so nobody would ride into him. Corti was ok and the session resumed. A few riders had fast laps removed as they were registered after the flags came out and strategies had to be decided as the eleven and a bit minutes remaining wouldn't let them do the laps on both a race tyre and a qualifier without running out of time.

Sylvain Barrier and Niccolò Canepa set out and took the top two spots but Ayrton Badovini and David Salom knocked them both off the top. Barrier then set out with a qualifying tyre on and raced against the clock to fit a lap in before the flag. A mistake in the last sector lost him a few tenths but he still managed to take second place, pushing Badovini out of Superpole two.

David Salom and Sylvain Barrier progressed to Superpole two and joined the ten riders who qualified within three tenths of each other.

Leon Haslam opened the session with a 1'43.682 as everyone banked laps on race tyres. As Sylvains Barrier and Guintoli shared airspace fighting for a front row start, Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea recorded 1'43.5s and everyone went back to get their fast boots.

Loris Baz put in a messy fast lap but the top spot was taken off him by Sylvain Guintoli on a clean fast lap. Jonathan Rea threw down the gauntlet with a 1'42.972 but Tom Sykes ripped a half second off that with a 1'42.484, taking another pole position.

Chaz Davies took third place as the only other rider under 1'43 with Marco Melandri, Loris Baz and Sylvain Guintoli on the second row within a twentieth of a second.

Results:

Superpole Two:

Superpole One: