Submitted by Jared Earle on
With more on the track, World Supersport lined up for eighteen wet laps, and drama unfolded on the warmup lap.
As the riders circulated the track, Andrea Locatelli highsided at turn twelve, dropping his Yamaha. His fairing was damaged and he limped his bike back to his garage and retired from the race before it even started. Kyle Smith looked perplexed on pole position, but the race started without the current world champion.
Lucas Mahias hit the lead into turn one ahead of Kyle Smith with Raffaele de Rosa and Manuel Gonzales behind them, but in the chaos of the wet, after a lap, Mahias and Smith were almost two second clear of the ring behind them, headed by Steven Odendaal who clawed his way through the pack, bike by bike. Lucas Mahias set the fastest lap.
The leading three places stretched out their gaps as Mahias set fastest lap after fastest lap, increasing the pace every lap until the seventh lap when he had a five second gap ahead of Kyle Smith who was over ten seconds clear of Odendaal in third place. In the middle of the race, Can Oncu found some pace and was visibly faster than every bike around him and he fought up from ninth place on lap two to fourth place on lap eight, staring down a gap of twelve seconds to Smith in second and a gap behind him that was growing at a pace of around a second a lap. Hannes Soomer then found some grip and started his journey from eighth place through the pack to fourth place and the fastest man on track.
Three laps from the end, with the top two spots of the podium decided, Can Oncu felt the pressure of Hannes Soomer closing in on him. Soomer set the fastest lap of the race, with a 1'54.609, and was working his way into the gap to Oncu when the Turkish rider made a mistake and pushed the front too hard in the tight turn fifteen and crashed out of third place. He recovered in tenth place and resumed his fight. Soomer, fastest man on track but with an unsurmountable climb to Smith in second place sat in the last podium place.
Lucas Mahias won comfortably, becoming the third winner of the year, and second French winner after Andy Verdoïa. Kyle Smith took second place with Hannes Soomer taking his second podium of the weekend. Can Oncu recovered through the field to finish in seventh place.
Lucas Mahias cemented his second place in the championship at his home round in a race where only fourteen riders finished.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
1 | 44 | L. MAHIAS | Kawasaki ZX-6R | |
2 | 11 | K. SMITH | Yamaha YZF R6 | 5.322 |
3 | 38 | H. SOOMER | Yamaha YZF R6 | 24.651 |
4 | 4 | S. ODENDAAL | Yamaha YZF R6 | 33.041 |
5 | 98 | K. HANIKA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 38.600 |
6 | 81 | M. GONZALEZ | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 9.931 |
7 | 61 | C. ONCU | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 48.993 |
8 | 99 | D. WEBB | Yamaha YZF R6 | 49.081 |
9 | 78 | H. OKUBO | Honda CBR600RR | 49.261 |
10 | 34 | K. MANFREDI | Yamaha YZF R6 | 18 |
11 | 5 | P. OETTL | Kawasaki ZX-6R | 1.676 |
12 | 30 | G. VAN STRAALEN | Yamaha YZF R6 | 1'24.523 |
13 | 9 | G. HENDRA PRATAMA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 1'28.265 |
14 | 47 | A. BASSANI | Yamaha YZF R6 | 18 |
RET | 22 | F. FULIGNI | MV Agusta F3 675 | 4 Laps |
RET | 12 | A. RUIZ CARRANZA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 13 |
RET | 3 | R. DE ROSA | MV Agusta F3 675 | 6 Laps |
RET | 56 | P. SEBESTYEN | Yamaha YZF R6 | 10 Laps |
RET | 25 | A. VERDOIA | Yamaha YZF R6 | 10 Laps |
RET | 84 | L. CRESSON | Yamaha YZF R6 | 11 Laps |
RET | 94 | C. PEROLARI | Yamaha YZF R6 | 13 Laps |
RET | 32 | I. VINALES | Yamaha YZF R6 | 13 Laps |
RET | 42 | S. FROSSARD | Yamaha YZF R6 | 13 Laps |
RET | 55 | A. LOCATELLI | Yamaha YZF R6 |