The 17-year-old’s time of 2’00.995 placed him 0.197 seconds ahead of Alessandro di Persio for the first pole of the year for the Yamaha AD78 FIM Latinoamerica team in a red-flagged Superpole session.

Action got underway for the fifth edition of the World Cup at Portimao on Friday morning with FP1, which was topped by Di Persio ahead of Japan’s Teppei Kugawa by just 0.090 seconds. Xarly Mendez De Oleo of the Dominican Republic was third ahead of Salles who started the day fourth quickest.

The top position traded numerous times during the Superpole session, but Salles’ strong time towards the end of the session saw him secure the top spot just before the red flag came out following a crash for Mendez De Oleo.

Salles will be joined on the front row by Di Persio with the USA’s Christopher Clark starting from third.

Kugawa (Japan), Kakeru Okunuki (Japan) and Arai Agaska (Indonesia) will line up on row two.

Marco Truoiolo (Italy), Dawid Nowak (Poland) and Emanuele Pastore (Italy) make up the third row as the top ten are covered by less than a second.

Racing gets underway for the first time in 2025 on Saturday with Race 1 at 10:15 (WEST), which will be streamed LIVE on the Yamaha Racing YouTube channel here.

Mario Salles Neto said: “I am so happy to start the year with pole position for tomorrow’s race. It was a good Superpole session for us and I am pleased with the lap time. I have a really good feeling on the bike, this is my favourite circuit so I am enjoying riding here and feeling confident we can fight for the win tomorrow. It is never easy in this class as everything is so close, but we will try our best.”