World Supersport Superpole at Imola was affected by the drops of rain fell during Superpole 2, thing that prevented the riders from making more than one fast lap.
At the end of the session pole position went to Lucas Mahias. The French rider performed a lap in 1’53.042 during the very early stages and so he took the lead before the track became too wet. This represents Mahias’ third pole position in 2018 after those grabbed at Phillip Island and Buriram and in Sunday’s race, which will surely take place on dry track, he will try to win and consolidate first place in championship standings.
Behind Mahias we have to remark the second place of Jules Cluzel, but especially Kenan Sofuoglu‘s performance. The five times World Supersport Champion will say goodbye to racing after Italian Round and after what he has done so far at Imola, where he’s come back after Phillip Island injury, we think that he may be one of the main protagonists also in the race. We don’t know certainly what he can do, but it matters little, because after the injuries he had in the past months (especially last year’s one at Magny Cours) it’s already good to see him on track one last time, in Puccetti Kawasaki home round.
Behind the first row, Federico Caricasulo achieved fourth place and he was the last rider performing a full lap on dry track. The man from Ravenna will start from second row together with Rob Hartog (the best ESS rider) and Luke Stapleford, while fast wildcard Massimo Roccoli ranked seventh with his Italian Championship-spec Yamaha. The five times Italian Supersport Champion will open third row in front of Hikari Okubo and Sandro Cortese. Fourth row for Raffaele de Rosa, Randy Krummenacher and Ayrton Badovini (who crashed in the early stages of Superpole 2).
Photo Credit: Marco Lanfranchi
