Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes took a stunning pole position in treacherous conditions at Magny Cours to seal his first in WorldSBK since 2018.
A session heavily affected by rain saw crashes for many of the big contenders, including Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega and Barni Spark Racing’s Danilo Petrucci.
It was Lowes who looked most comfortable in the wet conditions, and his time of 1:51.946s put him onto provisional pole as the rain continued to fall.
Bulega was chasing Lowes’ time down with three minutes to go, but a crash at Turn 5 put his pole bid to an end as he finished the Superpole session in second, seven-tenths off the Kawasaki rider.
The Bonovo Action BMW team had a great qualifying, with Scott Redding making it two British riders on the front row with his time of 1:52.799s, while Garrett Gerloff was fourth, 0.228s behind his teammate.
Michael Van Der Mark, who will be ROKiT BMW’s sole entrant of the weekend after Toprak Razgatlioglu’s crash in Friday practice, managed fifth place, 1.533 seconds off Lowes’ pole time.
Xavi Vierge finished 5th for HRC, and joins Gerloff and Van der Mark on the second row for Race 1.
Axel Bassani heads the third row of the grid, as his time of 1:53.889s made sure both Kawasaki Racing Team riders were in the top-10, and he will be joined by the Pata Prometeon Yamaha pair of Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli.
Petrucci, a favourite for pole in the rainy conditions, crashed on his first flying lap, but was still able to manage a top-10 finish with a time of 1:54.811s.
Reigning champion Alvaro Bautista, who has just resigned with Ducati for next season, had a nightmare session, finishing 17th and just over four seconds off of Lowes’ fastest time.
