The sun told lies as the lightweight class started their qualifying session because the temperatures were nothing to write home about, unless in the form of a complaint. A cool Le Mans was the cause of a handful of crashes over the two qualifying sessions and many cancelled laptimes for riders too eager to post a fast time. Although only seven riders entered the final shootout with a time on the board, the all time lap record eventually tumbled at the hands of many and Jaume Masia proved to be the fastest of the lot. The Spaniard’s final flying lap secured him a first pole position of the season, only two hundredths of a second ahead of Albert Arenas and with John McPhee joining them on the front row of the grid.

Raul Fernandez looked set to open row two but a late laptime cancellation dropped him to ninth, promoting Sergio Garcia to fourth. Gabriel Rodrigo had an eventful afternoon, narrowly escaping Q1 despite a late crash out of infamous turn 3 and his machine escaped too much damage, allowing him to rejoin in Q2 and climb all the way to fifth. Tony Arbolino completes the second row lineup, half a second off pole.

Ayumu Sasaki, Romano Fenati and Fernandez make up row three, with Celestino Vietti rounding out the top ten. Championship leader Ai Ogura entered the final time attack with no time posted due to a yellow flag infringement early in Q2 and did not make it past turn 7 – the costly crash leaving him last in the session and set to start 18th.

Results: