Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha) and his team-mate Federico Caricasulo made the best possible Saturday results for their official Yamaha squad by securing first and second place in the WorldSSP Superpole qualifying session at Portimao.
Mahias was unsure if he had even made the front row on his final slowing down lap, but held an eventual advantage over his team-mate of 0.225 seconds, with third place taken by Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing Yamaha).
The top four riders were all on Yamahas, with Jules Cluzel (NRT Yamaha) heading off the first non-R6 rider, Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag), who will take up fifth place on the grid.
The second row was rounded out by another top competitor on most weekends, Switzerland’s Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha).
The top Honda belonged to Spanish-based Briton Kyle Smith (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) in seventh. One time factory WorldSBK rider Ayrton Badovini (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag) was eighth, and the best Kawasaki qualifier was Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) in ninth place. Hannes Soomer (Racedays Honda) completed the top ten.
Class new boy Hector Barbera (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) came within one place of entering Superpole 2, despite losing some track time with a technical issue. Luke Stapleford (Profile Racing Yamaha) was 12th in SP2.
