Indonesia’s Aldi Satya Mahendra had another great start to his race weekend in the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU European Championship by snatching a second pole of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Catalan track offered near-perfect weather conditions on Friday morning for Free Practice 1, although the tarmac was still a little ‘green’ for the R3 riders who were the first class to put the rubber down. Italy’s Emiliano Ercolani set the fastest time in the opening session, more than a tenth of a second quicker than his nearest contender, Mahendra. Ercolani won the inaugural R3 race of the season back in Assen, and he has clearly carried his form into Barcelona. Rounding out the Top 3 in FP1 was Thailand’s Krittapat Keankum.

The temperatures soared for Superpole and the young talents were keen to make the most of their qualifying session. Unfortunately, a red flag temporarily halted proceedings at the halfway point when Poland’s Dawid Nowak took a heavy fall. The bLU cRU stalwart emerged uninjured, but it was session over for him. Meanwhile, Mahendra was building pace at the front, clocking a lap time 0.463 seconds faster than his rivals to take his second pole from two rounds. Home rider Marc Vich secured second on the grid, while Ercolani rounded out the front row.

Full Friday results can be found here.

Aldi Satya Mahendra said: “I’m feeling very happy because this is my second pole position of the season, but the job isn’t finished, and I want to stay focused for tomorrow. We have two races tomorrow and let’s see what I can do. For sure I want to end up better than Assen, where I was on pole but finished 12^th and 7^th.”