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Morais grabs first pole at Lausitzring

Saturday, 19 August 2017 13:02 GMT

South African rider on pole in WorldSSP class ahead of Caricasulo and Tuuli

At the Prosecco DOC German Round on Saturday afternoon Sheridan Morais (Kallio Racing) cashed in on his good pace so far this weekend to grab his first ever WorldSSP pole, ahead of fellow front row qualifiers Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team) and Niki Tuuli (Kallio Racing).

Morais produced a fine 1’40.440 lap in Tissot Superpole 2 to put him at the head of the grid for Sunday’s race, with Italian rider Caricasulo 0.065s behind him in second place. From the other side of the Kallio Racing box Morais’ colleague Tuuli made it a great day for his team to round out an all-Yamaha row one.

Friday’s fastest rider Jules Cluzel (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) qualified in fourth and will be joined on row two by World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and championship leader Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team).

Britons Luke Stapleford (Profile Racing) and Kyle Smith (GEMAR Team Lorini) qualified in seventh and ninth respectively, with Italian rider Lorenzo Zanetti (Team Factory Vamag) in eighth.

On the fourth row it’s Hannes Soomer (WILSport Racedays) in tenth place, in front of Hikari Okubo (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) and Gino Rea (Team Kawasaki Go Eleven). Towards the end of the session Rea crashed but was not too adversely affected.

In SP1 Soomer topped the timesheet with a 1'41.519s lap and he was joined in graduation to SP2 by Zanetti.

At the #GermanWorldSBK round on Sunday the WorldSSP riders will commence their race around the 4.255km Lausitzring circuit at 11.30am local time.