Balappa, who had scored a double in the first-round last month in Coimbatore, clocked a best lap of 02mins, 07.613secs, in the qualifying session to take P1 for the race tomorrow (Saturday) which will see a grid of 37 riders.

Completing the front row were Hyderabad’s Md Samrul Zubair (Raceists Motorcycle Club, 02:08.202) and Kayan Zubin Patel from Mumbai (Axor Sparks Racing, 02:08.406).

Earlier, veteran Rajini Krishnan, looking to build on the grand double he scored in the previous round last month, set the pace in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc category during the Free Practice session in the morning. The defending champion clocked a best lap of 01:53.569 to edge out Petronas TVS Racing’s KY Ahamed (01:53.845) and Deepak Ravikumar (01:54.190).

Ravikumar, however, emerged the quickest in the Pro-Stock 165cc category in the afternoon with a time of 01:57.400, just ahead of Pacer Yamaha duo of Prabhu Arunagiri (01:58.116) and first round winner Mathana Kumar (01:58.329).

Ravikumar will be carrying Petronas TVS Racing team’s hopes as their lead rider and defending champion Jagan Kumar is skipping this round due to a fracture on his right wrist following a crash in the first round at Coimbatore last month.

In the Girls (Stock 165cc) category, Puducherry’s Lani Zena Fernandez (RACR Castrol Ultimate1) headed the time sheets with a top lap of 02:10.686 during the practice session, pipping Round-1 winner Ann Jennifer of Alpha Racing (02:10.753) and last year’s champion, Pacer Yamaha’s Ryhana Bee (02:12.116).

Chennai’s Mohan Babu grabbed the pole position in the Open category (Apache RR310) of the Petronas TVS One-Make Championship with a hot lap of 01:56.054, ahead of local challenger K Kannan (01:56.333) and Hyderabad’s Rahil Pillarisetty (01:56.358).

In the Girls section (Apache RTR 200), Bengaluru’s Aditi Krishnan (02:12.532) and Renuka Gajendran (02:14.525) qualified for P1 and P2, respectively, with Ananya Awasthi from Chennai (02:15.349) qualifying third.

The Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup saw Kolhapur’s Siddesh Sawant taking the pole position (02:07.859) in the Novice (CBR 150) category while last year’s champion Kavin Quintal, who missed the first round, marked his return by emerging the quickest (01:50.316) in the Free Practice session in the NSF 250R category, ahead of first round winner and arch-rival Sarthak Shrikant Chavan (01:52.604).