It’s no surprise—anything else would have been. Lukas Tulovic (Triple M Racing Ducati Frankfurt) won Superpole 2 on his Ducati at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The IDM Superbike rider was the only one to clock a lap time under 1:24 minutes.
The clock stopped at 1:23.654 minutes. Jan Ole-Jähnig (GERT56 by RS Speedbikes) finished second, six-tenths of a second behind Tulo’s fabulous time. Jähnig’s teammate Toni Finsterbusch will start from third position tomorrow. For the Saxon rider, the goal was not only to set a fast lap time on the hot asphalt but also to complete Superpole 2 without crashing. He had already gained experience with this at the season opener, which also took place in Oschersleben. On the front row for both races tomorrow will be a red Ducati Panigale V4R and two BMW M 1000 RRs in turquoise-accented livery.
Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) will start from the second row. His comment: “That’s as good as it gets.” The only Honda rider in the field was pushing himself to the limit, but with a lap time of 1:24.396 minutes, he had reached his limit. The 29-year-old had leaned into the corners so aggressively that his leather suit showed clear signs of wear on the arm, but his lap times wouldn’t improve any further.
Hannes Soomer (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW) shrugged it off, but wasn’t unhappy to be on the second row of the grid. The Estonian can handle that. To sum it up: To the left of the BMW rider will be Alt on the Honda CBR 1000 RR-R, and to the right, Lorenzo Zanetti on a Ducati (Triple M Racing Ducati Frankfurt).
The situation is tense. Soomer leads the IDM Superbike standings with 112 points. Alt is second with 103 points. Tulovic has 86. A small mistake or a crash could completely change the situation. That was already the case in Most, when Tulo was just one point behind Soomer and was trying to snatch the championship lead from him. The crash in the second race completely turned the situation around, and Tulo is currently further behind Soomer than ever before.
Soma Görbe (BCI MW Racing), Bálint Kovács (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW), and Martin Vugrinec (Skach Motors Kawasaki Racing) were the three fastest riders from Superpole 1 to advance to Superpole 2, where the top 15 riders compete for their final starting positions. They actually managed to keep their cool in the fray and move up a few spots. Görbe even gained five.
Vugrinec had flown the flag for Kawasaki, and team boss Oliver Skach was pleasantly surprised. “Given how the event started, I’m surprised that things are going so well now. We don’t have a specific setup for the Oschersleben track, but we’re still relatively fast,” said the former racer.
Superpole 1: Soma GÖRBE (BMW), Martin VUGRINEC (Kawasaki), Bálint KOVÁCS (BMW), Twan SMITS (Yamaha), Sandro WAGNER (BMW), Christian GAMARINO (Kawasaki), Christoph BEINLICH (BMW), Marco FETZ (BMW)
Superpole 2: Lukas TULOVIC (Ducati), Jan-Ole JÄHNIG (BMW), Toni FINSTERBUSCH (BMW), Florian ALT (Honda), Hannes SOOMER (BMW), Lorenzo ZANETTI (Ducati), Leandro MERCADO (BMW), Soma GÖRBE (BMW), Bálint KOVÁCS (BMW), Leon ORGIS (BMW), Martin VUGRINEC (Kawasaki), Maximilian KOFLER (Yamaha), Kevin ORGIS (BMW), Max SCHMIDT (BMW), Milan MERCKELBAGH (BMW)