Friday, 31 May, OLBIA (Italy): What could have proved a tricky 15 minutes for Rashed Al Tayer proved not to be, the winner of the season-opener in Portugal the quickest of the 17 riders out for pre-qualifying in GP1, his time of 1:27.94s edging Marcus Jorgensen by 1.50s with Roberto Alexander third quickest.

Frederik Brandao escaped the drop in 14th place, Martin Al Haj, Andrea Dominguez and Diego Sanciu all missing the cut.

On a busy afternoon for the Dane, Jorgensen also eased through pre-qualifying in GP2 topping the time sheets for the majority of the 15 minute session and posting a best 1:36.55s lap, his closet challenger Mattia Fracasso second quickest but 5.44s off the pace, Palle Pedersen in third with 1:42.18.

Abubaker Al Marri survived the cut in 20th with a 1:49.12s lap, Manea Al Marzooki, Nicola Cabras, Wu Ronghua and Massimiliano Rulli the quartet missing out.

For some of the riders who have missed the cut, there could be a lifeline should any of the riders through pull out or have technical issues and cannot make the start of Moto1.