Popov shines for Mahindra Racing

Mahindra Racing's aim of winning the constructors' title at the Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (CIV) received a further boost on Saturday after one of their riders, Miroslav Popov clinched pole position in the 125GP final race of the CIV season at Vallelunga here.

After setting the best time of 1:46.779 seconds at qualifying here the Czech rider will begin Sunday's afternoon's 16-lap race from the front row.

Mahindra Racing's Miroslav Popov (left) and Lukas Trautmann

Teammate Lukas Trautmann finished fourth at the end of the two qualifying sessions clocking 1:48.463 seconds and will start the race from the third row of the grid.

"I got quite comfortable on the wet conditions today. We'll see tomorrow how the weather will be like but I will do my best in any track condition," said Popov. "I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's race and it won't matter if the track if dry or wet," said Trautmann.