Xarly Mendez will start on pole position for the first FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup race of the season at Balaton Park after an intense opening Superpole session.

The rider from the Dominican Republic fired his warning shot in practice, topping the times by over 0.7 seconds from Japanese riders Kakeru Okunuki and Riichi Takahira.

Brazil’s Aymon Bocanegra, returning to the series this year, will start second ahead of Italian title hopeful Emanuele Pastore who lines up third.

Two series rookies will line-up on the second row with Leonardo Marques fourth (Brazil) and Riichi Takahira (Japan) sixth, while the returning Jean Kento Turner (Japan) starts fifth.

Angelo Mottola (Italy) heads row three ahead of Spain’s Mauro Gomez and Switzerland’s Alessandro Binder. Salvatore Germano (Italy) rounds out the top ten.

Race 1 gets underway at 10:20 local time and can be watched LIVE on the Yamaha Racing YouTube channel here.

Xarly Mendez said: “I am very happy to be starting from pole position, but in this class it is all about the race and there will be a close fight in both races, so we will do all we can to achieve the best result possible! Thank you to my team.”

Click HERE to view the Free Practice results and HERE for the Superpole results.