Submitted by Jared Earle on
The first World Supersport Saturday race would be seventeen laps of Jerez. Isaac Viñales started at the back of the grid due to an incorrect tyre pressure.
Locatelli led from pole position, with Jules Cluzel, Philipp Oettl< Corentin Perolari and Lucas Mahias following. Cluzel barged past Locatelli into turn six to take the lead on the first lap with Hikari Okubo taking fifth place from Mahias behind them.
Cluzel, Locatelli and Oettl started to break away from Perolari and the constantly changing fight between Mahias and Okubo. Jules Cluzel set a fastest lap of 1'44.371 as the leading trio gained two seconds from fourth-placed Perolari who was holding Mahias and Okubo back. Cluzel beat the fastest lap again, with a 1'44.288 on lap three as the gap to fourth place rose to almost four seconds. Mahias passed Perolari on lap three and was staring down a gap of four seconds to a podium place.
On lap four, Andrea Locatelli took the lead from Jules Cluzel into turn six and immediately started to break away from Cluzel who struggled to keep up as Locatelli set a 1'44.006 fastest lap. The leading two were over a second clear of third-placed Philipp Oettl.
Locatelli set a 1'43.893 and had over a second of a gap over second place and three seconds off third place. Lucas Mahias, quicker than Oettl, had over three seconds to close to fight for the podium.
The fight for fifth position between Axel Bassani, Corentin Perolari, Raffaele De Rosa, Hikari Okubo and Steven Odendaal was where the action was as the leading four riders spread out into safe positions. Ten laps in, De Rosa broke free of that fight and started closing up the two second gap to fourth-placed Lucas Mahias. Hikari Okubo, after dropping a few places, pitted in and ended his race.
With four laps left, De Rosa closed to within a second of Mahias, with the fight for fourth place the only uncertainty as the race ticked over the last few laps, especially with De Rosa's late race pace on the MV Agusta, a bike that suffers less than other bikes as the race goes on.
On the last lap, at turn six, Raffaele De Rosa stuck his bike under Mahias's as the pair swapped pair, Mahias wiping his elbow all over De Rosa's side, but De Rosa held the inside line. A few corners later, however, Lucas Mahias found some pace through the fast right handers of turns seven and eight, and somehow pulled off a pass, carrying speed from the exit of turn six, on De Rosa and he held fourth place to the flag.
Andrea Locatelli won his second race from his second pole position and set his second fastest lap in the process. Jules Cluzel's second second place keeps him in second place in the championship, ahead of his fellow Frenchmen Lucas Mahias and Corentin Perolari.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
1 | 55 | A. LOCATELLI | Yamaha YZF R6 | |
2 | 16 | J. CLUZEL | Yamaha YZF R6 | 3.052 |
3 | 5 | P. OETTL | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 4.714 |
4 | 44 | L. MAHIAS | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 3.142 |
5 | 3 | R. DE ROSA | MV Agusta F3 675 | 11.979 |
6 | 4 | S. ODENDAAL | Yamaha YZF R6 | 17.464 |
7 | 94 | C. PEROLARI | Yamaha YZF R6 | 17.738 |
8 | 81 | M. GONZALEZ | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 5.345 |
9 | 61 | C. ÖNCÜ | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 23.419 |
10 | 38 | H. SOOMER | Yamaha YZF R6 | 23.736 |
11 | 12 | A. RUIZ CARRANZA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 17 |
12 | 99 | D. WEBB | Yamaha YZF R6 | 31.363 |
13 | 22 | F. FULIGNI | MV Agusta F3 675 | 34.001 |
14 | 84 | L. CRESSON | Yamaha YZF R6 | 9.026 |
15 | 2 | L. MONTELLA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 17 |
16 | 83 | L. EPIS | Yamaha YZF R6 | 1'07.891 |
RET | 47 | A. BASSANI | Yamaha YZF R6 | 15 |
RET | 25 | A. VERDOÏA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 4 Laps |
RET | 52 | P. HOBELSBERGER | Honda CBR600RR | 5 Laps |
RET | 78 | H. OKUBO | Honda CBR600RR | 6 Laps |
RET | 32 | I. VIÑALES | Yamaha YZF R6 | 11 Laps |
RET | 56 | P. SEBESTYEN | Yamaha YZF R6 | 12 Laps |
RET | 9 | G. HENDRA PRATAMA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 15 Laps |
Comments
V impressed
Locatelli 2 for 2. His qualifying lap not only would have put him into Moto2 Q2 last weekend, he would have been 13th on the grid for the Moto2 race. All without the benefit of the (edit: leftover) Michelin rubber that Moto2 (Q1 mostly) gets.
Two very convincing wins for him too. You have to wonder where he's headed next year if he keeps this up. Back to Moto2, up to WSBK (the seat vacated by VDM perhaps?).
Good to see the other GP transplants for this season upping the depth of the WSSP field as well (Oettl, Odendall, Oncu).
Moto2/3 run Dunlop, but still
Moto2/3 run Dunlop, but still likely faster tires, not to mention the bigger engines in the Triumph triples
Michelin rubber coats the track
from MotoGP FP4, Q1, and Q2 when the Moto2 field heads out to qualify.
Correct
MotoGP leftover rubber-advantaged laptimes in Moto2 Q1 is what I was refering to.