Mahias stays top to edge Krummenacher

Lucas Mahias has retained top spot on Friday practice in Thailand by just 0.034s from Randy Krummenacher as Yamaha riders continued to dominate at the Chang International Circuit.

The defending World Supersport champion has picked up from where he left off after victory in Phillip Island by taking the overall fastest lap with a 1m 37.469s set in FP1. Despite the Bardahl Evan Bros Yamaha rider Krummenacher closing to within one-tenth of a second his FP2 timesheet topper wasn’t enough and saw him remain in second place.

Mahias’ GRT Yamaha teammate Federico Caricasulo also remained third while the biggest mover in FP2 was NRT Yamaha’s Jules Cluzel to jumped to fourth on the times ahead of lead Kawasaki rider Anthony West.

Hikari Okubo led the Puccetti Kawasaki charge with five-time World Supersport champion and teammate Kenan Sofuoglu absent through injury with his replacement Malaysian Azlan Shah narrowly missing out on an automatic Superpole 2 spot in 11^th place.

Sandro Cortese secured his spot in Superpole 2 with seventh place on the combined Friday practice times for Kallio Racing Yamaha ahead of Raffaelle De Rosa for MV Agusta.

Despite not improving on his FP1 time, Luke Stapleford remained inside the top ten for Profile Racing Triumph with Thailand Kawasaki rider Thitipong Warokorn completing the automatic Superpole 2 entries in 10^th place.