Yamaha rider Maverick Viรฑales was quick out of the gates at the start of the 15-minute Q2 heat at Phillip Island on Saturday afternoon.
His first flying lap of 1โ30.116 saw him very briefly hold eighth place, but he was just getting started.
His third attempt saw him climb up to sixth, behind his teammate, but there was yet more in store for him. He headed back to the pit lane for a tyre change with less than seven minutes of the session remaining.
Two minutes later the Spaniard was back out on track and showed he meant business, immediately dropping a 1โ29.146s lap to swap places with teammate Rossi, for fifth place.
He kept piling on the pressure on his next lap and briefly secured pole with a 1โ28.719s, before being pushed back to second place, by 0.333s.
Thanks to this strong performance, he will start Sunday's race from the first row of the grid.
โHonestly, this was a better result than I expected,โ he explained. โEspecially in FP4 I didnโt feel so good on the bike. I didnโt feel as great as I did in the winter tests, because the tyres are different, especially the front. During qualifying, in the second run, I felt good and felt I could push, so Iโm happy about that.โ
โWe have been struggling a little bit this weekend, but I think we found a way now and we will try to give our best. For sure we will be hoping for dry conditions, but we are finding ways of improvement in the wet, so Iโm happy that the practice sessions helped us learn a lot. Iโm going to ride my own race. For sure I will push and apply pressure to my main rivals if I can, and do my best.โ
