Team Yamaha Belgarda’s Paolo Casoli took pole for Sunday’s Supersport World Championship race at Phillip Island, Australia.

According to a press release written by Kel Edge and issued by Yamaha, “The terrible conditions today prevented any rider improving their lap times from yesterday, so the grid stays the same.

“That means that yesterday’s lap of 1:36.916 by Team Yamaha Belgarda”s Paolo Casoli gives the Italian the pole position for the second round of the Supersport World Championship at Phillip Island tomorrow. The weather put paid to any chances of Casoli’s teammate Jamie Whitham improving his grid position, so he will start on
the fourth row. Both riders, though, are happy with the dry and wet set-ups of their YZF-R6 Yamahas and are confident of good results ­as long as today’s very strong winds don’t reappear.”

The release went on to quote Casoli as saying “The conditions were terrible, truly terrible and I didn’t like them much, they were impossible! I had a little crash in the morning when I lost the front end in the wet. After that I took it a bit more cautiously, ­after all there was no point doing anything stupid because nobody was going to go any quicker. I don’t mind if it is dry or wet tomorrow, but I don’t want a
dry race with lots of wind.

“We tried some new wet tires today and I think they’ll be good if it is a wet race. We’ll just have to wait and see what the weather is like in the morning.”

Final qualifying times follow:

1. Casoli, Yamaha, 1:36.917
2. Fujiwara, Suzuki, 1:36.926
3. Curtain, Honda, 1:37.063
4. Guareschi, Ducati, 1:37.117
5. MacPherson, Kawasaki, 1:37.146
6. Thomas, Ducati, 1:37.156
7. Pirovano, Suzuki, 1:37.213
8. Pitt, Kawasaki, 137.216
9. Riba, Honda, 1:37.294
10. Muggeridge, Suzuki, 1:37.301