With conditions at the British circuit identical to the 30-degree heat seen at last month’s Misano race, Di Persio (Italy) followed on from his double Italian win by taking pole for Saturday’s opening race. His time of 1’45.090, set at the mid-way point of the session was enough to hold on to pole, albeit by the slimmest of margins with Japan’s Kakeru Okunuki missing out by just 0.067 seconds.

Emmanuele Pastore (Italy) will start third despite a crash at turn one towards the end of the 25-minute Superpole session. A late lap from Teppei Kugawa (Japan) saw him move up to fourth, one of few riders to improve at the end of the session.

One-event rider Ivan Spada (Italy) impressed to take fifth on the grid following his performance in the 2024 R3 BLU CRU Super Finale, with Indonesia’s Arai Agaska completing the second row.

Mario Salles (Brazil) will start seventh ahead of fellow countryman Aymon Bocanegra with Salvatore Germano (Italy) and Jean Kento Turner (Japan) completing the top ten.

The opening race of the weekend gets underway at 16:15 BST and will be broadcast live on the Yamaha Racing YouTube channel here.

Alessandro Di Persio said: “I am really happy, for this pole position. I love riding here at Donington Park, the circuit is amazing. This is my second pole position in the FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup, so I am very pleased! We will have to see tomorrow, as in the R3 Cup you cannot go into the race with a plan – there is always a big battle until the last lap so we will give it our best.”