MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

World Supersport's second race was eighteen laps of the Catalunya circuit with cooler weather than yesterday, 21ºC, and didn't start with the rain that the Superbike race ended with.

Federico Caricasulo followed Nicolo Bulega into turn one and took the lead on the brakes after the long run to the turn. Glenn van Straalen and Valentin Debise passed Marcel Schroetter to take third and fourth.

Caricasulo and Bulega fought in turn ten and Bulega came off the worst, losing the lead he briefly held, and as he was pushed wide, Debise, van Straalen and Schroetter all punted on the opportunely to pass him. Into turn one of lap two, Debise took the lead from Caricasulo and held it round the lap, setting the fastest lap, a 1'46.126. Bulega was under half a second off the lead in sixth place, as the leading six were the front of a train that covered eight riders blanketed by a second.

At the end of lap three, Bahattin Sofuoglu set the fastest lap in fourth place, a 1'46.016, and he slipstreamed the leaders to take the lead into turn one, having started the race in ninth place. He missed the apex, but as turn two was a left hander, he was on the inside and held the lead. The leading seven riders were covered by under half a second. On lap four, Sofuoglu set a 1'45.583 ahead of Caricasulo, Schroetter, Debise, van Straalen and Stefano Manzi were covered by seven tenths of a second. Seventh-placed Bulega was six tenths of a second clear of Jorge Navarro and Niki Tuuli.

Lap five and second-placed Marcel Schroetter set a 1'45.388 fastest lap, in the wake of his teammate Sofuoglu. Valentin Debise and Federico Caricasulo swapped places behind them with van Straalen and Manzi visibly breaking free of Bulega behind them. Valentin Debise set a faster lap, a 1'45.309, in third place.

Every turn, the front six riders riders fanned out three abreast into turns, looking for lines that gave them a route past the bikes in front. The group of six riders split into two close groups with Sofuoglu, Schroetter and Debise breaking away from Manzi, van Straalen, Caricasulo and a resurgent Bulega. Bulega passed Caricasulo on lap seven and started lap eight ahead of him. Bulega watched van Straalen have a bit of a wobble out of a corner and pounced immediately to take fifth place from him. At the front, Sofuoglu started lap nine just one thousandth off a second ahead of his MV Augusta teammate Schroetter and he held the lead into turn one. John McPhee crashed out at turn nine, joining Baris Sahin and Oli Bayliss as crashers.

Nicolo Bulega lapped half a second quicker than everyone else, setting a 1'45.166 as he stared at a gap of a second and a half behind fourth-placed Manzi. Into turn one of lap eleven, Schroetter took the lead from Sofuoglu, sweeping round the outside down the straight. Manzi took third from Debise into turn four with Bulega closing fast, lapping much quicker than the bikes in front of him.

Lap twelve and Sofuoglu took the lead back cleanly down the straight. And Schroetter messed his exit from turn one, letting Manzi, Debise and Bulega, now in the leading group, close up on him. Federico Caricasulo led the fight for sixth place four seconds behind the leaders. Lap thirteen, and Manzi passed Schroetter down the straight with Bulega and Debise behind them. Van Straalen took sixth place from Caricasulo.

Lap fourteen, down the straight, Manzi tried to pul alongside Sofuoglu into the lead, but he couldn't get past. Bulega in fourth place matched the pace of the leaders, but couldn't close the half second gap to the leading trio. Schroetter took second place from Manzi in the last sector, but Manzi took second place back into turn one of lap fifteen. Bulega and Debise behind them were close enough to capitalise on any errors in front of them and the slowly closed the gap.

In turn ten, Manzi lunged at the apex and left Sofuoglu no chance to hold the lead. His wide line round Manzi let Schroetter follow the Yamaha through to take second place from his teammate. With two laps to go, Schroetter went on the inside of Manzi as Sofuoglu went round the outside, the pair both blasting past Manzi into turn one, Sofuoglu taking the lead. Nicolo Bulega dropped off the timing screen as he pulled off track with a mechanical issue.

At the start of the last lap, the leading trio swept across the track, jostling for position, but Sofuoglu held the lead with Manzi slotting into second place behind him. Sofuoglu put the hammer down and defended turn ten as Manzi tried in vain to pass. Exiting the last turn, Sofuoglu took a defensive line as Manzi swept round for a fast exit and initiated a drag race to the line.

Bahattin Sofuoglu crossed the line under a tenth of a second ahead of Stefano Manzi with Marcel Schroetter four tenths of a second further back. Valentin Debise crossed the line a lonely two seconds further back. In what we have come to expect, the stewards once again had to leave their mark, penalising Stefano Manzi for exceeding track limits at turn eight, bumping him back to third place, giving MV Augusta a one-two. Glenn van Straalen, Federico Caricasulo and Nicholas Spinelli took the chequered flag over four seconds further back. Stefano Manzi in his daft sunglasses looked confused about his penalty in Parc Fermé. Bahattin Sofuoglu said he would get the Sofuoglu surname back to the top of World Supersport.

Bahattin Sofuoglu's win, his first World Supersport win, pushed him past Can Oncu in the championship, up to seventh place, but the big winner was Marcel Schroetter who climbed up to second place, passing Stefano Manzi, thanks to Manzi's penalty. Nicolo Bulega remained a the top of the championship, but his lead dropped to thirty three points from Schroetter.

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