World Supersport standings leader Lucas Mahias led the way on the opening night of practice in Qatar, while nearest rival Kenan Sofuoglu was seventh on his comeback from injury.
Mahias comes into the final round of the season 20 points clear of Sofuoglu, who has been passed fit to race just a month after suffering a broken hip in a crash at Magny-Cours.
To secure the title, Mahias needs just 10th place while Sofuoglu must finish in the top two and hope the championship leader is outside of the top 10.
Mahias ended the opening session at Losail second behind Kyle Smith, who has been the victor in Qatar for the last two years. Sofuoglu was seventh as he assessed his physical condition.
Passing a medical test following the opening hour-long session under the floodlights, Sofuoglu – who will be reviewed again prior to third practice – shot to the top of the timesheets in the early stages of second practice with a 2m02.629s after the first 10 minutes.
The Puccetti rider guided his Kawasaki to a 2m02.629s, and then to a 2m00.600 with 40 minutes on the clock while Mahias had yet to improve on his first practice pace.
The Frenchman soon rectified this, however, edging ahead of Sofuoglu with a 2m02.318s and improving to a 2m02.254s at mid distance.
Profile Racing’s Luke Stapleford demoted Sofuoglu to third, before improvements from Niki Tuuli in second and PJ Jacobsen in fourth bumped the Turk back to fifth.
A late flurry of laps in the final minutes saw Jerez winner Federico Caricasulo, Stapleford, Jules Cluzel and Mahias trade top spot – with the latter streaking four tenths clear with a 2m01.728s.
Cluzel pipped Britain’s Stapleford by just 0.006 seconds, with Caricasulo heading Smith to complete the top five.
Ant West edged ahead of Puccetti team-mate Sofuoglu in the dying seconds to end Thursday sixth quickest, while their team-mate Michal Canducci slotted into eight spot. Tuuli and Christian Gamarino took the remaining SP2 spots.
Jacobsen found himself in 11th as the chequered flag fell, while Sheridan Morais will join him in SP1 along with Hikari Okubo, Rea and alex Baldolini.
As the field pushed to improve in the closing stages, several came unstuck. Laclan Epis throw his Kawasaki ZX-6R at the scenery of Turn 16, with PTR Honda’s Chris Bergman doing the same just a few moments prior. Both riders were unscathed.
Qatari wildcards Saeed Al Sulaiti and Mashel Al Naimi took their QMMF Kawasakis to 21st and 23rd on the combined times.
