CARICASULO TAKES FINAL WORLD SUPERSPORT POLE, BUT BULEGA TAKES IDENTICAL LAP TIME
Our World Supersport riders only had 15 minutes to come to grips with a damp and drying track in the final Tissot Superpole of the 2022 Championship. In a session that had many talking points, you didn’t know where to look for the Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.
Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing) took an early gamble with tyre choice that lead him to dominate the first 10 minutes of the Tissot Superpole Session. With 5 minutes left on the clock, the newly crowned World Supersport Champion was lapping over 4 seconds clear from second, leaving only two riders in the field lapping within the qualifying cut-off time of 105%.
The final two minutes of the session saw riders putting in their charge for the final World Supersport Tissot Superpole of the year. Raffaele De Rosa stormed to the top, but this lasted less than a few seconds before our FP1 fastest time setter Frederico Caricasulo (Althea Racing) come out of nowhere to put his Althea Racing Ducati Panigale V2 on pole with a 1:37.161.
In that same final lap, Aruba.it. Racing – Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega crossed the line with an identical lap time to Caricasulo, with a 1:37.161. Caricasulo’s second-fastest lap of the Superpole session was the deciding factor that determined the front row of the grid, with Yari Montella (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) rounding out the top three, marking the Italian’s first-ever front-row start.
Our hats go off to Oli Bayliss (BARNI Spark Racing Team) who will be starting his final two World Supersport races for the 2022 season in 15th position.
Aegerter was a late faller, with a costly mistake coming from the seemingly untouchable World Champion in the Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round Tissot Superpole. Aegerter now finds himself starting 5th on the grid, 0.220 seconds behind Caricasulo and Bulega.
