MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

A packed World Supersport grid was missing Oli Bayliss who was deemed unfit this morning, adding to his weekend's woes. The race would be eighteen laps at 16ºC with a 5mph wind.

Federico Caricasulo led Nicolo Bulegha into turn one but behind them Yari Montella wiped out Can Oncu into turn one putting Raffaele De Rosa into third place ahead of Stefano Manzi and Glenn van Straalen. Bulega took the lead into the chicane at the end of the first lap and started to break away. Van straalen and Caricasulo swapped places back and forth over seconds place, giving Bulega freedom to escape unhindered.

Nicolo Bulega set a 1'37.607 fastest lap on lap two, over half a second quicker than anyone else on track. Van Straalen, Manzi and Caricasulo traded placers as Marcel Schroetter closed up on their fight.

Can Oncu was taken to the medical centre for a checkup.

Manzi took second place and started lap four two seconds behind Bulega, over three seconds behind a lap later. Seven riders covered by under a second fought for second place, led by Caricasulo, Manzi and van Straalen. The MV Augusta's of Marcel Schroetter and Bahattin Sofuoglu were in fifth and sixth place, taking advantage of Manzi pushing van Straalen off the track in the Geert Timmer chicane at the end of the track. Sofuoglu took fourth place off his teammate Schroetter, but was over a second off third-placed Manzi.

Bahattin Sofuoglu was caught out in a three-wide fight into the chicane, sandwiched between Schroetter and van Straalen, and he was spat from his bike, clipping van Straalen's front with his rear and landing on the track. He was able to get to safety but his weekend was finished. An investigation was opened into the racing incident but it was closed a few laps later.

At half race distance, nine laps of eighteen completed, Nicolo Bulega led Federico Caricasulo and Stefano Manzi by over three seconds with Marcel Schroetter over a second further back. Niki Tuuli and Valentin Debise contested fifth place while Glenn van Straalen ran off the track and ended up in fourteenth place.

Stefano Manzi forced a pass on Federico Caricasulo on lap twelve as Caricasulo's rear tyre started to complain about the effort being put into it as Caricasulo fought with a visor tear-off.

Adrian Huertas's climb from the back of the grid had him in ninth place almost two seconds off Raffaele De Rosa in eighth, but the pair lapped at the same place and Huertas found his place.

With three laps to go, four seconds behind Nicolo Bulega in the lead, Stefano Manzi and Federico Caricasulo carried on their fight, tenths of a second separating them lap after lap, but with two laps to go, Marcel Schroetter's MV Agusta woke up and he caught Caricasulo to make the fight for two podium places between three bikes.

Last lap, Bulega led by four seconds as a squirming Caricasulo looked for a way past a stable Manzi as Schroetter looked on, out of range for a lunge and hoping for a mistake. Caricasulo, with a brake guard bent out of shape by contact with Manzi's rear tyre, powered past Manzi, but Manzi took it back on the brakes into turn eleven, and held second place under a tenth of a second ahead of Caricasulo over the line. Marcel Schroetter was just over half a second behind the hard fought duel, missing out on the podium. Tom Booth-Amos was top Supersport challenger in eleventh place.

Nicolo Bulega won again, extending his championship lead over Stefano Manzi to thirty seven points. Marcel Schroetter held onto third place, only two points ahead of Federico Caricasulo who took fourth place off Can Oncu whose DNF put him in fifth place, fourteen points off Caricasulo.

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