STK1000 took to the warm and sunny Circuito de Jerez at 14:15 local time to decide Sunday's grid positions ahead of the season finale set to decide the Cup winner at the Gaerne Spanish Round.

Roberto Tamburini (Nuova M2 Racing) set the second quickest time, but still took pole position after earlier pole sitter Maximilian Scheib (GRAPHBIKES Easyrace SBK Team) was penalised 3 grid positions. PATA Yamaha Official Stock Team’s Ricardo Russo was then moved to second, while Cup contender Raffaele De Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) can now start from third to lock out the front row of the grid.

Scheib will now be starting from the second row on the grid in fourth, while PATA Yamaha Official Stock Team’s Lucas Mahias starts from fifth, ahead of Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi in sixth. Jeremy Guarnoni (Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) headed the third row of the grid in seventh with Alessandro Nocco (Nuova M2 Racing) in eighth. Cup leader Leandro Mercado (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) will have to work hard on Sunday to finish ahead of his rival De Rosa, as he finished ninth on the grid. Kevin Calia (Nuova M2 Racing) rounded out the top 10.

The end of the session was red flagged after a five-rider crash at turn 12 occurred involving Andrea Tucci (Berclaz Racing by MotoXracing), Andrea Mantovani (Guandalini Racing Yamaha), Gregg Black (MTM / HS Kawasaki), Luca Salvadori (Team Motozoo by Motoxracing) and Jack Kennedy (Agro On-Benjan-Kawasaki). The crash saw Black and Kennedy suffer injuries, ruling them out of the race on Sunday.

Mercado leads the standings by 7 points and will be doing everything he can to win the Cup on Sunday 16^th of October in what will be the final outing of 2016 for the FIM Superstock 1000 category.