Xarly Mendez will start from pole position as the final battle commences for the FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup crown on Saturday at the Circuito Estoril, Portugal.
The rider from the Dominican Republic, who, after leading the championship since round one, enters the final round a single point behind title rival Riichi Takahira (Japan), topped both the free practice and Superpole sessions, securing pole position with a quickest time of 1’54.308.
Takahira will start eighth after becoming involved in an incident with another rider during the all-important qualifying session, handing the initial advantage to Mendez ahead of Saturday’s first race.
Angelo Mottola (Italy) will start second ahead of Mario Salles (Brazil), who completes the front row. Aymon Bocanegra (Brazil) heads up row two ahead of Emanuele Pastore (Italy) and Hinata Okada (Japan).
Daniel Krabacher (Austria) will start seventh, ahead of Takahira, with Indi Schunselaar (Netherlands) enjoying one of his strongest qualifying sessions of the year to start ninth. Australia’s Valentino Knezovic will start tenth.
The penultimate race of the season will get underway at 13:00 local time and can be watched live on the Yamaha Racing YouTube channel here.
Xarly Mendez said: “I am happy to be on pole position. As always, it will be a tough race but we will push as hard as we can for the best result possible and push for the championship over the next two races.”