Japan's Kao Miura leads after the short program at Grand Prix Espoo

Kao Miura took the lead in the short program ahead of Japanese teammate Shun Sato at the Grand Prix Espoo on Friday as he tries to earn a spot at figure skating's Grand Prix Finals.

Miura, last season's world junior champion, landed a clean quadruple salchow-triple toeloop combination, triple axel and quad toeloop for 93.54 points. Sato scored 90.41 points with a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination, quad flip and triple axel.

Jimmy Ma of the United States was 10 points further back in third with 80.19 after some small errors, including putting a hand down on the landing of his triple axel. Koshiro Shimada of Japan was fourth.

WATCH: Men's short program:

Two other possible contenders for spots in the finals struggled as Kevin Aymoz of France placed fifth and Matteo Rizzo of Italy was sixth ahead of Saturday's free skate.

Grand Prix Espoo is the fifth of the six events that determine qualification for next month's Grand Prix Finals in Beijing. World champion Kaori Sakamoto will compete in the women's short program later Friday.

Finland is hosting a Grand Prix for the second straight season in place of usual host nation Russia. The International Skating Union barred Russia from hosting events and entering skaters in international competitions following the invasion of Ukraine.