As the afternoon temperature cooled, Maxwell blasted his Yamaha R1M around the Sydney Motorsport Park circuit almost half a second faster than his previous qualifying time, posting a 1m29.905s lap – the only rider to break the 1m30s barrier.

The Pirelli Superpole shootout featured Yamaha’s Maxwell, Allerton and Halliday up against Crankt Protein Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss, DesmoSport Ducati’s Mike Jones and Jon Daniels Racing’s Daniel Falzon, however, Falzon opted out of the 10-minute Pirelli Superpole session, deciding to preserve his tyres for race day.

 Qualifying behind Maxwell was his Yamaha teammate Glenn Allerton (1:30.205) followed by Ducati rider Mike Jones (1:30.349), Honda’s Troy Herfoss (1:30.632) and Yamaha’s Cru Halliday (1:31.156). Falzon settled for sixth position.

Maxwell was over excited to be starting the third round from pole position.

“I am really happy to be able to claim my second pole of the year. It’s probably better than the first pole really, it’s not only that we have pole position but we have reasonably consistent pace,” said Maxwell.