2002 World SuperBike Championship - Round 7 - Lausitzring

The frequently wet German weather and something of a record weekend for crashes and incident caused much disruption to the final qualifying sessions at Lausitz. With dark clouds threatening to make another appearance before the Superpole session, a ‘wet’ Superpole was declared. Luckily for all, the track remained dry and the top five riders smashed the Superpole qualifying records.

Under wet Superpole rules, the top 16 Superbike qualifiers from the regulation timed sessions determine their final grid positions only after expending a maximum allowance of 12 laps, within a 50-minute time frame. Fastest lap wins pole position, and so on down to 16th, and the last place on the fourth row.

Troy Bayliss, the reigning champion, added to his career total of five Superpole wins at Lausitz with his third pre-race triumph of 2002, won with a time of 1’39”395.

The entire top four qualifiers, who will comprise the front row of the Superbike races, all went under the 1’40 bracket.

Second pace on the grid was won by another factory Ducati rider, Ben Bostrom (L&M) with a time of 1’39”552.

Third up on the stopwatch was Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda) maintaining his challenge to Bayliss’ dominance in typically dogged and rapid style.

Superpole winner in 2001, Neil Hodgson, made productive use of his laps and took fourth fastest time on his HM Plant Ducati.

Ruben Xaus put his Infostrada Ducati fifth, one ahead of Pierfrancesco Chili (NCR Ducati).

Young Briton James Toseland, from the HM Plant Ducati team, scored a fine seventh place, one ahead of double qualifying crasher Noriyuki Haga (Playstation2 Aprilia), who was somewhat detuned by his brace of falls; one just minutes before Superpole.

The first four-cylinder challenge to the Ducati/Aprilia/Honda triumvirate was Gregorio Lavilla (Alstare Suzuki) the lone Suzuki rider in the field.

Aussie Steve Martin took his DFX Pirelli Ducati to a top ten finish on the time sheets, and will be joined on the third row by the similarly equipped Juan Borja (Spaziotel) and the leading Kawasaki ridden by another Brit, Chris Walker.

Lucio Pedercini (Pedercini Ducati), Marco Borciani (Pedercini Ducati), Broc Parkes (Ducati NCR Parmalat) and Alex Hofmann (Kawasaki Racing) finished off the top 16 and the fourth row of the grid.

The Benelli of Peter Goddard finished 17th after regulation qualifying and thus narrowly missed out on Superpole and a guaranteed fourth row start.

Troy Bayliss AUS Ducati Infostrada 1m39.395
Ben Bostrom USA L & M Ducati 1m39.552
Colin Edwards USA Castrol Honda 1m39.569
Neil Hodgson GBR HM Plant Ducati 1m39.855
Ruben Xaus ESP Ducati Infostrada 1m40.009
Pierfrancesco Chili ITA Ducati NCR Axo 1m40.361
James Toseland GBR HM Plant Ducati 1m40.545
Noriyuki Haga JPN Playstation2-FGF Aprilia 1m40.816
Gregorio Lavilla ESP Alstare Suzuki Corona 1m40.865
Steve Martin AUS DFX Racing Ducati Pirelli 1m41.131
Juan Bautista Borja ESP Spaziotel Racing Ducati 1m41.245
Chris Walker GBR Kawasaki Racing 1m41.529
Lucio Pedercini ITA Pedercini Ducati 1m42.143
Marco Borciani ITA Pedercini Ducati 1m42.427
Broc Parkes AUS Ducati NCR Parmalat 1m42.685
Alexander Hofmann GER Kawasaki Racing 1m43.042

Riders not making SuperPole and the position they will take on the grid

Peter Goddard AUS Benelli Sport 1m44.829
Mauro Sanchini ITA Kawasaki Bertocchi 1m45.034
Mark Heckles GBR Castrol Honda Rumi 1m45.113
Alessandro Antonello ITA DFX Racing Ducati Pirelli 1m45.185
Ivan Clementi ITA Kawasaki Bertocchi 1m45.246
Serafino Foti ITA Pedercini Ducati 1m46.391
Thierry Mulot FRA White Endurance Honda 1m46.639
Jiri Mrkyvka CZE JM Racing Ducati 1m48.184
NQ Yann Gyger SUI White Endurance Honda 1m48.708
NQ Teodor Myszkowski POL Yamaha Aral Racing 1m49.543
NQ Giuliano Sartoni ITA Vemar Giesse Ducati 1m52.589