Lucas Mahias smashed the Losail World Supersport lap record to take his maiden pole in the class, while championship rival Kenan Sofuoglu gritted his teeth to go fourth fastest.
GRT Yamaha’s Mahais comes into the final round of the year 20 points clear of Sofuoglu, who was passed fit prior to third practice to race despite suffering three fractures to his pelvis at Magny-Cours just over a month ago.
Kallio Racing’s Niki Tuuli was the early pacesetter in the pole shootout session, the Finn taking his R6 to a 2m01.658s ahead of Mahias and Jules Cluzel on identical 2m01.788s laps.
SP1 pacesetter PJ Jacobsen took over at the top of the timesheets at the start of his final run with a 2m01.526s, but was quickly deposed by Cluzel with a 2m01.284s before Mahias began lighting up the timing screens.
The Frenchman crossed the line to smash the existing lap record with a 2m00.738s, and went quicker again through the first sector on his final lap.
He was unable to carry that pace to the end of the lap, however, but came under no threat as the rest completed their last efforts. Cluzel held onto second, with Tuuli completing the front row.
The injured Sofuoglo – who needs a top two finish on Saturday and hope Mahias misses the top 10 to win a sixth world title – managed to get his Puccetti Kawasaki into fourth ahead of Jacobsen and Sheridan Morais, who came through SP1 with the American.
Federico Caricasulo held top spot briefly in the session, but found himself shuffled back to seventh by the end ahead of Luke Stapleford and Kyle Smith, who crashed at Turn 7 in the final 30 seconds of running.
Sofuoglu‘s Puccetti team-mate Michael Canducci and Ant West qualified 10th and 12th respectively, with Christian Gamarino splitting the Kawasaki-mounted pair on his Evan Bros. Yamaha.
Gino Rea – whose future in the Supersport class remains unclear ahead of the season finale – pipped PTR Honda’s Chris Bergamn by just a few hundredths with a 2m02.355s at the end of SP1 to secure 13th, while Lorenzo Zanetti completed the top 15 on his Vamag MV Agusta.
Qatari wildcards Saeed Al Sulaiti and Mashel Al Naimi will start their home round from 18th and 22nd respectively on the QMMF bike.
Orelac Racing’s Zulfhami Khairuddin was the only other crasher in Superpole, the Malaysian coming off his Kawasaki at Turn 7 at the end of the session. He will line up 19th.
