Istanbul Park, Turkey

World Supersport qualifying was split into two sessions, with the last part being a three minute sprint, an incident with Fabien Foret and Fabio Menghi causing the red flag to once again be unfurled.

Kenan Sofuoglu and Sam Lowes kept each other honest as they both pushed for pole position, but, as they wend into the short sprint, Sofuoglu had the advantage, and try as Lowes might, the local man was able to grab pole position. Sofuoglu took pole position off Lowes twice and off himself three times, ending the session over a second ahead of third place.

World Supersport’s second free practice session started on time, on a damp track. With just under twenty minutes to go, oil was trailed across the whole track and was, in some places, sitting on top of water, bringing out the red flags. As the cleanup operation was underway, it became clear that there would not be enough time after the track was safe to run the remaining nineteen minutes. Rather than throw the Superbike schedule off, it was decided to run the remainder of the session after the big bikes had been out.

With overnight rain and a damp track, Ayrton Badovini had to wait until the track dried enough to record a qualifying time. Instead, before it was dry, the rains returned. Three riders ventured out and not one of them was able to approach their times from yesterday. Times from yesterday determine who goes into Superpole, with Badovini missing out and starting from last place on the grid; quite a change from last meeting's pole position. 

Results:

Merely fifteen riders have recorded qualifying times for the very first Istanbul round of World Superbike, three of them for the first time in their career. Three riders couldn’t race this weekend, due to injuries sustained at the Nurburgring and a green track this morning sidelined a further three, with only one likely to return tomorrow.