Image: Supplied.

Qualifying 23rd at Catalunya meant Barni Spark Racing Team’s Oli Bayliss had his work cut at round eight of the 2022 Supersport World Championship (WorldSSP), with the Australian underlining the need to improve his Superpole performance at the upcoming races.

Starting from the eighth row of the grid in Barcelona after being caught up with a slower group in qualifying, Bayliss worked his way inside the top 15 by lap four of the opening encounter and was lining up a move for 10th on the final lap when he was forced off-track, ultimately taking the chequered flag P15.

The number 32 was on the charge once more in race two but unfortunately crashed out at turn 10, brining an end to his race. Despite the misfortune, Bayliss demonstrated again across the weekend that he has the pace capable of fighting for a top 10 position and would highly benefit from a better grid position.

“It was an unlucky race, after a good start that allowed me to gain a couple of positions already in the first lap, I got into my rhythm and – like yesterday – I managed to recover several positions,” Bayliss said.

“Unfortunately, halfway through the race I lost the front and ended up on the ground. We have been conditioned by qualifying and we must improve in Superpole because in the last rounds we have always shown that our pace would allow us to be consistently in the top 10.”

Bayliss’ best result of the season to date came at Estoril with a P6 in race two, however, his highest scoring weekend in WorldSSP so far was at Magny-Cours, notching 9-8 results in line with his strongest qualifying position of eighth at the French circuit.

The Ducati’s rider’s next opportunity to continue his charge towards the front comes at Portimao, Portugal, with round nine of 2022 WorldSSP to take place on 7-9 October.