2019 Philip Island World Supersport Race Results: Chaos Attracts Chaos

In the opening World Supersport race, a mandatory pit-stop will be required in the race and no tyre is allowed to do more than ten laps of the sixteen lap race. Riders can pit in whenever they want in the flag-to-flag event. 

Jules Cluzel led the first lap from the lights ahead of Federico Caricasulo and Randy Krummenacher, but at the end of the lap, out of the last corner, Caricasulo passed Cluzel down the straight only to be passed by Randy Krummenacher into turn one. Cluzel then had Raffaele De Rosa to deal with as the MV Agusta set the fastest lap as he caught him. 

On lap three, with Krummenacher, Caricasulo and Cluzel in front of him, Raffaele De Rosa had a very unusual loss of adhesion as he used a little too much throttle at full lean, the bike sliding out to the right, gripping and then snapping to the left then right, throwing De Rosa off and splitting the pack, giving the leading three a gap to the rest of the field. Thomas Gradinger was over a second clear of third placed Jules Cluzel as De Rosa got back on his bike, hoping that the pit-stop chaos would let him get a few points.

On lap six, just before the pit lane opened for tyre changes, Caricasulo took the lead from Krummenacher into turn one, as the teammates pushed a gap of over a second from Cluzel. A lap later, Krummenacher took the lead back in turn four, having hounded Caricasulo throughout turn two and three, and then gave up the lead by pitting in for his new tyres. Jules Cluzel followed him. 

Over the next few laps, riders pitted in. Federico Caricasulo rode off with his paddock stand still attached to his rear swing arm, and he lost valuable seconds as his team ran to catch him up to remove it. The mistake cost him around ten to twelve seconds while Randy Krummenacher took advantage of a clear track to set the fastest lap of the race. 

When the dust settled and everyone had pitted in, Krummenacher led Jules Cluzel by two seconds who had over seven seconds from Federico Caricasulo and Lucas Mahias, but just as everything looked simple, race direction handed out penalties to the Frenchmen in second and fourth places, making the track position potentially inaccurate. 

Jules Cluzel had a minor penalty that luckily wasn't large enough for Caricasulo to take tsecond place from him, but Mahias lost seven places after crossing the line at the chequered flag to add to the one Hector Barbera took off him on the track.

Randy Krummenacher won the opening round ahead of Jules Cluzel, Federico Caricasulo and Hector Barbera. Thomas Gradinger picked up fifth place ahead of the first non-Yamaha finisher in Hikari Okubo. 

Federico Caricasulo claimed to be happy with third place, in spite of his hanging paddock stand, but you didn't have to be an expert in reading body language to disagree with his assessment. 

Results:

* Adjusted with penalties.