Kenan Sofouglu ensured he will start tomorrow’s World Supersport finale at Losail on the front row of the grid after he secured pole position in qualifying.
The Turkish rider took top spot from Lucas Mahias with 35 minutes left of the session, after a Glenn Scott crash had caused a red flag and delay, and never looked back, despite coming under pressure from both Mahias and PJ Jacobsen, with the former joining him on the front row.
Gino Rea stormed into third with a sensational late lap on the CIA Landlords Honda and the Londoner will be hoping his qualifying result can help him equal or better his best result of third, which he gained back at the Phillip Island opener in February.
Britain’s Kyle Smith had posted a superb lap to initially take third on the Pata Honda with just five minutes remaining, but two minutes later Mahias - who has been on it all weekend - displaced him with a 2’01.781 that put pressure on Sofuoglu and dropped Jacobsen to third, which became fourth following Rea’s late surge.
Sofuoglu, who had held position at the top of the timesheets for the majority of the session with an initial 2’01.750, which he brought down to 2’01.539, then made completely sure of the qualifying result with seconds left on the clock as the Puccetti Kawasaki rider put a magnificent 2’00.989 on the board as he seeks to finish off his turbulent season in style at Qatar.
