Peso da Regua, Portugal: Team Abu Dhabi’s Mansoor Al-Mansoori upstaged teammate and hot favorite Rashed Al-Qemzi to secure pole position in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portugal, the penultimate round of the UIM F2 World Championship.

After four-time champion Al-Qemzi surprisingly missed out on a place in the six-boat qualifying shootout, Al-Mansoori underlined his growing championship challenge with a superb performance to take the honors in Peso da Regua.

There was late qualifying drama when Sweden’s Mathilda Wiberg, who trails Al-Qemzi by eight points in the F2 title race, crashed spectacularly, leaving her mechanics with a big repair job to carry out before she starts in fifth place tomorrow.

Lithuania’s Edgaras Riabko, who qualified in third position, is just one point further away in what now promises to be an exhilarating climax to the season in Portugal over the next eight days.

This has been one of the most closely contested seasons in the championship’s 30-year history, and the intensity was evident even in today’s official practice session for the 16 starters.

Wiberg edged out Al-Qemzi by five-thousandths of a second, with Al-Mansoori another fraction away in third and less than a second separating the top seven.

That set the stage for a fascinating qualifying session that saw Q1 and Q2 being combined into a single 40-minute battle to qualify for the six-boat Q3 shootout.

While Al-Mansoori was fastest just past the halfway point, Al-Qemzi was down in eighth spot and went into the pits to allow the Team Abu Dhabi mechanics to fit a new propeller.

Almost immediately, Riabko squeezed his way to the top of the standings, only for Palfreyman to quickly take the initiative before Al-Mansoori set another fastest time as the drama continued.

It was not to be this time for Al-Qemzi, who was unable to improve and will start in eighth place tomorrow, with the world championship hanging in the balance.

Leading championship standings

1 1 Rashed Al-Qemzi UAE 52pts

2 7 Mathilda Wiberg SWE 44

3 41 Edgaras Riabko LTU 43

4 36 Mansoor Al-Mansoori UAE 31

5 14 Matthew Palfreyman GBR 29

6 33 Nelson Morin FRA 24

7 45 Duarte Benavente POR 16

8 74 Giacomo Sacchi MON 12

9 91 David del Pin ITA 12

10 9 Mette Bjerknæs GBR 11

MISANO ADRIATICO: Jorge Martin claimed a statement victory in Saturday’s sprint race at the San Marino and Rimini Riviera MotoGP, extending his overall lead over reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia with a stunning performance.

Pramac rider Martin is 26 points in front of pole-sitter Bagnaia ahead of the main event Grand Prix on Sunday after charging to an unexpected second sprint win of the season.

The Spaniard, who won at Misano Adriatico last year, started in fourth on the grid but got away like lightning and was ahead of Bagnaia by the first turn.

He comfortably held off Ducati’s Bagnaia for the rest of the 13-lap sprint and crossed the finish line 1.495 seconds in front of his Italian rival, improving his position at the top of the standings.

“Today I expected maybe to be fighting with Pecco (Bagnaia) but I didn’t expect to do that start,” said Martin.

“I even had a gap to keep for the last two laps so super happy. For tomorrow it’s another story but I feel confident that we are in a good way, super good and super fast.”

Martin has not won a GP since the French back in May but his consistency has helped him accumulate a decent advantage as he searches for his first MotoGP title. The 27-year-old had finished second in both the sprint and GP at four of the previous five events and his display on Saturday means he cannot be overtaken in the standings this weekend by Bagnaia, regardless of what happens in Sunday’s race.

It was a big blow for Bagnaia, who was favorite to cut the gap separating him from Martin after claiming pole position with a record-breaking fastest lap at the “Marco Simoncelli” circuit earlier on Saturday.

Two-time champion Bagnaia is riding with injuries to his shoulder, neck and collarbone after crashing out of last weekend’s Aragon MotoGP but looked in great form before Martin left him for dust.

“I’m absolutely not happy ... The start was a disaster, I lost first position and from that moment it was very difficult,” said Bagnaia.

“In any case, second position after what happened last week is OK. We will work to improve the start because it was a disaster and try to be in a better shape tomorrow.”

Bagnaia is at least helped by this weekend being the first of two in a row at the Misano, as the same circuit is being used later in September for the Emilia Romagna GP which replaces the canceled race in Kazakhstan.

Marc Marquez, a double winner at Alcaniz last weekend, had a harder time in Italy and lost ground on Martin, dropping to 77 points off the summit in third after finishing the sprint in sixth place.

Six-time champion Marquez battled up the rankings from his starting position of ninth on the grid, but has been caught on 234 points by Enea Bastianini.