Nicolo Bulega put the headline time on the board at the start of WorldSBK Superpole in Estoril, recording a lap record of 1m34.105s on his opening lap. The newly crowned champion then broke into the 1m33s during the first lap of his second run, although no precise time from that improvement is given. The session is being held on a dry circuit, with the air at 22°C and the track at 27°C. Superpole is scheduled for 11:15 local time, followed by Race 1 at 15:30.

Alex Lowes was the first rider to seriously threaten Bulega, taking the Bimota temporarily into second and ending that lap 0.5 seconds behind the Ducati. Iker Lecuona quickly displaced him with a 1m34.041s effort, leaving Lowes third. Lecuona had earlier gone third on 1m34.542s, while Alberto Surra remained part of the leading group as the session developed.

The order after the first runs

The provisional top ten after the first runs was Bulega, Surra, Lecuona, Alex Lowes, Miguel Oliveira, Yari Montella, Axel Bassani, Lorenzo Baldassarri, Garrett Gerloff and Alvaro Bautista. Danilo Petrucci briefly occupied tenth before Sam Lowes moved to ninth and pushed him down to 11th. Oliveira later climbed to fourth with his latest lap.

Bulega had already established the weekend’s reference point on Friday by topping both sessions. Surra was second-fastest in both, although his times came with a new tyre, while Lecuona was third. Oliveira finished fourth for BMW and said changes were needed during the afternoon to sharpen his feeling with the bike. He also described the front-tyre choice as a delicate issue for the weekend.

The fight at Estoril extends beyond pole position. Yari Montella was quicker than both Sam Lowes and Alex Lowes in FP2 and can secure third in the championship if he adds 20 points to his advantage over fourth place by the end of Sunday. The factory Ducati squad has taken every pole position so far this season: Bulega has nine and Lecuona one. Lowes, who topped FP3, arrived at Superpole with a realistic chance of ending that run.

Remy Gardner is competing with an injured wrist after being declared fit following FP1, and he finished FP3 17th. Somkiat Chantra was 13th overall on Friday while working on elements from his MotoGP appearance at Motegi, where he stood in for Joan Mir. The Superpole order remained provisional as the riders continued their qualifying attempts.