Oschersleben Superpole 2: Tulovic on pole with a blistering time of 1:23.566

Florian Alt had made his mark on all the practice sessions on Friday, including the pre-practice session, and finished the day as the fastest rider with a time of 1:24.251. He was closely followed by Lukas Tulovic, Marcel Schrötter and Markus Reiterberger. All Euro Moto Superbike riders had opted out of the third free practice session on Saturday morning, as the track was still wet from the morning’s rain.

Jan-Ole Jähnig and Kevin Orgis had also secured direct entry into Superpole 2. They were joined by Leon Origs, Twan Smits and Toni Finsterbusch following a successful Superpole 1 session. The order of the top nine grid positions was then determined during the 15-minute session.

As usual, the GERT56 riders Schrötter, Jähnig and Finsterbusch were the last to take to the track. Only Lukas Tulovic was out even later, letting his eight team-mates go first. In the first sector of his first timed lap, Leon Orgis was the fastest. He maintained that pace for the rest of the lap and took the lead with a time of 1:24.713, ahead of Smits, Reiterberger and his brother Kevin.

A comfortable lead

Tulovic and Smits then crossed the finish line just a few hundredths of a second behind Orgis. One lap later, the picture had changed. Tulovic had picked up the pace and taken the lead with a time of 1:24.157, ahead of Orgis and Smits. After two laps, Alt – in last place with a time of 1:25.317 – headed straight back to the pits. Meanwhile, Jähnig overtook Leon Orgis to take second place. However, with a time of 1:24.627, the BMW rider was still 0.479 minutes behind the leader and his Ducati.

Alt and Smits were the first back on track following the general pit stop. Reiterberger also hurried to get away from his sixth place. Shortly afterwards, Lukas Tulovic rejoined his colleagues on track. Just under five minutes remained on the clock. Apart from Leon Orgis, everyone was out on the track by the end.

Smits closed in on Tulovic, coming within a threatening 0.031 minutes of him. But the German immediately responded with a time of 1:23.566. This gave him a comfortable lead of a good half a second over the rest of the field and saw him achieve his personal target of a time starting with a 23. Alt moved up to third place with a time of 1:24.279, relegating Schrötter and Reiterberger to fourth and fifth respectively. Tulovic was the first to pull into the pit lane, securing pole position. No BMW would feature on the front row of the grid on Sunday.