Marvellous Mahias Secures Maiden WorldSSP Pole in Qatar

GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team’s Lucas Mahias followed up his dominant performance on Thursday under the lights in Qatar by smashing the lap record in SP2 on Friday on his way to recording his first WorldSSP pole position. The Championship leader set a 2:00.738 on his penultimate lap to ensure he will start Saturday’s crucial race from the head of the front row, knowing he just needs to finish in tenth or higher to be crowned the 2017 FIM Supersport World Champion. Teammate Federico Caricasulo enjoyed another good day as he showed superb consistency, qualifying in seventh for Saturday’s race and confident he can fight for the victory.

Mahias dominated proceedings on Thursday in Qatar as he topped the combined timesheets by 0.412s. He followed this up by working on his race pace in FP3 before putting in his best qualifying performance of the season in SP2. In the heat and humidity of the desert, the 28-year-old French rider showed no signs of wilting under the pressure during qualifying, even after his first run was affected by a slight issue that meant he had to return to the pits. His team worked superbly to get him back out for the rest of the 15-minute session and, incredibly, on just his first real flying lap he set a 2:00.738 to smash the existing lap record from 2015 by 0.251s, in the process laying down a marker to his rivals for Saturday’s race by finishing 0.546s ahead of the rest of the field. His feat was made even more impressive by the fact that the technical regulations in the class have changed significantly since 2015 to restrict performance, demonstrating just how much Mahias gelled with his Yamaha R6 around the Losail International Circuit. Mahias was delighted to secure his first pole position of the season and heads into the championship-deciding race knowing the title will be his, no matter what anyone else does, if he secures 6 points or more.

His teammate Caricasulo had also shown great pace during Thursday’s practice as he finished in fourth on the overall timesheets. The 21-year-old Italian, like Mahias, used FP3 to focus on finding the ideal race setup with his Yamaha R6 and entered SP2 with the same mindset. Not trying to set a hot lap at the beginning, he focused instead on consistency and making sure he was in the best possible shape for the final race of the season on Saturday. At the end of the 15-minute session he headed out on his own and set a 2:01.734 to secure seventh on the grid for the race, confident in the knowledge that when the lights go out on Saturday he will have the pace to battle for the victory.

To round off an impressive day for Yamaha, Kallio Racing’s Niki Tuuli made it a double front-row start for the manufacturer after qualifying in third, while his teammate Sheridan Morais will line up in sixth on the grid for Sunday’s Race, meaning there were four Yamaha’s in the top seven in SP2.

The GRT Yamaha Official Yamaha Team are focused and determined to achieve the best possible results on Saturday, with the championship battle going right to the wire in Saturday’s 15-lap race which is scheduled to start at 19:30 pm local time in Qatar.