2016 Lausitzring World Supersport Race Results: Thirteen Weeks Is A Long Time

After a thirteen week absence, World Supersport returns. Randy Krummenacher closed in on championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu by two points in the summer as Federico Caricasulo lost his second place in Misano from a fuel infraction. Would he be able to close the gap even further?

Kenan Sofuoglu led into the first corner but was hounded immediately by Niki Tuuli with Christoffer Bergman and Jules Cluzel between them and Gino Rea and Randu Krummenacher. Towards the end of the lap, Cluzel took third place from Bergman and shortly after, Tuuli took the lead decisively from Sofuoglu.

For two more laps, Tuuli led the race while Cluzel snapped at Sofuoglu's heels, but on the third lap, Sofuoglu took back the lead, setting the lap record for the second lap in a row in the process. Tuuli returned the favour in second place, setting the lap record in each of the next two laps.

Kenan Sofuoglu and Niki Tuuli were glued together and broke free from Jules Cluzel's challenges and started their own private race that would continue until the end of the race.

Jules Cluzel would have a lonely race in third place, seeing the leaders disappear into the distance and never being challenged from behind, while Randy Krummenacher would be involved in race-long duels.

On lap five, dropping off the back of Cluzel, Christoffer Bergman would fall back into the clutches of the battle between Gino Rea and Krummenacher. Krummenacher passed Rea and was able to close the over-a-second gap to Bergman, dragging Rea and Federico Caricasulo with him. Krummenacher made short work of Bergman and it looked like the other riders in the pack would follow suit, but on lap eight, Gino Rea retired with a technical problem, losing power and getting off the track.

As Sofuoglu and Tuuli increased their lead and Cluzel maintained the gap to fourth place, Krummenacher broke free from the fight for fourth and five laps from the end looked comfortable in fourth place with a two second gap to Caricasulo and Bergman with PJ Jacobsen and Lorenzo Zanetti another couple of seconds further back. Jacobsen and Zanetti suddenly found pace and closed on Bergman, both passing him with ease and then set their sights on Caricasulo.

With three laps to go, Caricasulo, Jacobsen and Zanetti had demolished Krummenacher's lead and on the penultimate lap started taking lumps out of him, with Caricasulo passing him first then Jacobsen. Jacobsen then passed Caricasulo and sat in fourth place while Krummenacher lost time in sixth fighting of an aggressive Zanetti.

For the last five laps, Kenan Sofuoglu, who admitted at one point to thinking of the championship and conceding the lead safely to Tuuli, dropped to low 1'42 laps, but luckily for him, Tulli wasn't able to capitalise on the change of pace and in the last two laps, was slower than the Turk and dropped back to a over a second from the leader.

Kenan Sofuoglu won by less than two seconds from a rider in only his second World Supersport race. Niki Tuuli suffered from a breakdown on his cooling down lap and got a lift to Parc Fermé from a photographer to celibrate his second place. Jules Cluzel was "Super content," very happy, to take third place, not expecting a podium.

PJ Jacobsen in fourth made up for a very mediocre early race spent mostly in eighth place and Randy Krummenacher did his title prospects no good, conceding fifteen points to Kenan Sofuoglu, who now has a fifty-three point advantage. Jacobsen in third place is only nine points off Krummenacher.

Results: