It was anything but a tactical race when Lukas Tulovic secured pole position in Most, Czech Republic. The 25-year-old from Bavaria (Triple M Racing Ducati Frankfurt) turned everything around in the IDM Superbike in a single move.
When Lukas Tulovic pulls the Ducati’s throttle, he does it right and with plenty of intensity. Yet in Superpole 2—which determines the starting grid for the 15 fastest riders—he was languishing all alone at the bottom of the timesheet. Team boss Matthias Moser couldn’t believe his eyes. Just half an hour later, he was sitting in his folding chair in front of the pit, thoroughly satisfied, with a huge grin on his face. Tulo had done it again: pole position in Germany’s top motorcycle class. And he did it at Most with a fabulous time that’s a real treat to savor: 1:31.885 minutes.
At first, Jan-Ole Jähnig (GERT56 by RS Speedbikes) had been the fastest. There was no sign of Tulovic. The plan had actually been for him to pull out of the pits and immediately leave the competition gasping for breath. That was a bit too much. Tulo braked too hard in the first corner—twice, in fact—and that happened in two consecutive laps. “There was no strategy behind it,” the team boss laughed with relief afterward, “it finally worked on the fourth try.” And he’s proud of his new recruit: “You can really see how Lukas has developed with us and how we’re making progress with the suspension and electronics. The teamwork is working great.”
Hannes Soomer (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW) had to settle for second place, 0.442 seconds behind. The Estonian, who leads the championship, managed to squeeze past Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) in the final seconds.
The gaps between the riders behind are small. Only Tulovic had put in that one incredible lap that put him in a league of his own.
Teammate Lorenzo Zanetti was in fourth place until two minutes before the end of the session, but slipped back to seventh as BMW riders Jan-Ole Jähnig, Toni Finsterbusch (GERT56 by RS Speedbikes), and Tati Mercado (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW) made a final push.
Milan Merckelbagh (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW), Twan Smits (Team Apreco), and Martin Vugrinec (Skach Motors Kawasaki Racing) advanced from SP1 to SP2. Masteroil team boss Werner Daemen was thus once again able to place all four of his riders among the top 15. Merckelbagh seized the opportunity to move up to eleventh on the grid in SP2. For Oliver Skach’s Kawasaki team, Martin Vugrinec’s advancement to SP2 meant they had achieved their goal. Jan Mohr was not there. The Austrian had another crash in free practice today following yesterday’s major crash.
Superpole 1: Milan Merckelbagh (BMW), Twan Smits (Yamaha), Martin Vugrinec (Kawasaki), Sandro Wagner (BMW), Max Schmidt (BMW), Marco Fetz (BMW), Philipp Steinmayr (Kawasaki)
Superpole 2: Lukas Tulovic (Ducati), Hannes Soomer (BMW), Florian Alt (Honda), Jan-Ole Jähnig (BMW), Toni Finsterbusch (BMW), Leandro Mercado (BMW), Lorenzo Zanetti (Ducati), Bálint Kovács (BMW), Maximilian Kofler (Yamaha), Kevin Orgis (BMW), Milan Merckelbagh (BMW), Twan Smits (Yamaha), Leon Orgis (BMW), Soma Görbe (BMW), Martin Vugrinec (Kawasaki)