Stefano Manzi will line-up on pole position for the first FIM Supersport World Championship race of the weekend at Donington Park, with the Yamaha R9 riders well within the mix throughout a positive day in the British sunshine.
The opening day of action saw the Manzi claim his first pole position since Assen 2024, setting a personal-best lap time of 1’29.450 in the closing stages of the session and narrowly beating his R9 counterpart, Can Öncü (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Racing), to pole position by just 0.1 seconds.
After topping the timesheets ahead of Öncü and Manzi in Free Practice 1, Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) went on to secure fifth on the grid ahead of the opening race of the weekend, punching in a fastest stint of 1’29.658 on his 14th lap of the session.
Meanwhile, rookie Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Racing) ended the day’s Superpole session in an impressive ninth-place during his first visit to the East Midlands circuit, with Aldi Satya Mahendra (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Racing) 18th.
This afternoon’s Superpole session marked an unfortunate end to the weekend for Yuki Okamoto (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing). Following a red-flag incident at the start of this session, the 2024 Japanese Superbike Champion was diagnosed with a concussion, chest injury and left collarbone injury, and was transferred to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham for further assessment.
Saturday will kick off with Warm Up at 09:50, before the opening race of the weekend at 13:35.
Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) Position: 1st (1’29.450)
“The team and I had a strong Friday here at Donington Park. I’m happy with the effort the team put in after a challenging weekend in Misano, and feel we are I feel like we are in a good place moving into tomorrow. I’m happy to end the day with a pole position for the opening race tomorrow. The race will be tough, but we’ll focus on holding position and fighting at the front.”
