Mahias blitzes competition for pole position in Qatar

Lucas Mahias has moved closer to sealing the 2017 World Supersport championship by taking his maiden pole position of the year at the season finale with a lap record on the GRT Yamaha.

Following with a useful tow from Niki Tuuli, the championship leader stormed the times to set a new lap record of 2m 00.738s to grab the final pole position of the year by over a half a second from nearest rival Jules Cluzel on the CIA Landlords Insurance Honda.

Despite losing out to Mahias, Tuuli placed his Kallio Racing Yamaha on the final spot of the front row to see defending champion Kenan Sofuoglu shuffled down to fourth. After being given the green light to take part in Superpole qualifying by the medical team, Sofuoglu will now need to pass one final medical exam to start the Qatar race to keep his title bid alive. Sofuoglu trails Mahias by 20 points and needs to finish in the top two to stand any chance of taking a sixth world title.

PJ Jacobsen flew through Superpole 1 to put his MV Agusta fifth in the second session ahead of Sheridan Morais and Federico Caricasulo.

British duo followed with Luke Stapleford placing his Profile Racing Triumph in eighth on the grid with two-time Qatar race winner Kyle Smith crashed out on his flying qualifying lap to restrain him to ninth.

Michael Canducci (Puccetti Kawasaki), Christian Gamarino (Bardahl Evan Bros Honda) and Anthony West (Puccetti Kawasaki) completed the Superpole 2 qualifiers.