The final round of the 2016 World Supersport championship was held under the lights at the spectacular circuit of Losail, Qatar. 

The circuit was again a new one for Stapleford, and so was the experience of racing under the lights. After gelling with the bike in the opening session on Friday afternoon he finished the session in 10^th place and was happy that he could improve and ensure his position in SP2 in the second session. This wasn't to be, as a few issues with the bike meant that he was not able to improve on his time in the second session. This demoted him down the field to 17^th meaning he would have to go through SP1 to have a chance at a top ten start. 

Saturday was a new day and the team wanted to make sure that the problems were rectified with the bike. They were able to do this and Luke ended free practice three again in 10^th place. Both Luke and the team felt that they had a good chance of getting through the first session of qualifying and fighting for a top ten-grid position. 

What they didn’t expect was for Luke to completely obliterate his personal best lap time by over a second. This meant that he was through to the second part of qualifying with ease. This changed the team’s objective and they were now shooting for the top six and would like to be starting from the top two rows. 

Luke’s opening lap in SP2 slotted him into third, but then as everyone pitted for fresh rubber they were able to improve their time and this bumped Luke down the grid. However Stapleford also had pitted for some fresh tyres and was on pace for the front row matching the five time champion Kenan Sofuoglu in every sector. As the chequered flag flew Luke crossed the line and went P1, it was pole position for the Brit in the British team on the British bike. With a time of 2:01.621 Luke Stapleford would take his maiden pole position on the World stage.

Luke Stapleford: The weekend was like a rollercoaster, from the struggles Friday, pole position Saturday then getting taken out in the race. Obviously I'm really disappointed the weekend ended the way it did but we've all got to keep positive, it was a new circuit for me and to be on pole position shows what potential we have. I genuinely believe we had a chance of winning the race which is really hard to take but it gives me even more motivation to work harder than ever over the coming weeks to make sure we come out fighting for round 1 next season. I'd like to thank everyone for the kind messages over the weekend, the support was incredible.

The team will be back on the grid next year, and will be looking to challenge at the front.