Supersport: Total chaos at Imola

Following an avalanche of successive red flags, while a magnificent battle between Lucas Mahias and Kenan Sofuoglu in the lead, the Supersport race was postponed to 14:20 p.m.

Lucas Mahias arrived at Imola as leader of the World Championship with 65 points, ahead of Sheridan Morais (45) Roberto Rolfo (41) et PJ Jacobsen (39) while Jules Cluzel occupied seventh position with 29 points. There were 4 different winners in the first 4 races.

PJ Jacobsen achieved the best time in qualifying and started from pole position, with him at his side on the front row Lucas Mahias and Christian Gamarino. Federico Caricasulo, Mahias' teammate took fourth time, but damaged his left shoulder during the warm-up. He should have started on the second line with Kenan Sofuoglu and Sheridan Morais, but his bike refusing to start in time, Caricasulo started last, then his R6 broke down during the reconnaissance lap, and he returned to his stand on foot. Not his lucky day… The third line included Kyle Smith, Jules Cluzel and Kyle Ryde.

The start was delayed due to oil spilled on the track by Caricasulo's motorcycle. The race distance was reduced to 16 laps.

At the start of the race, Gamarino was the fastest ahead of Mahias, Jacobsen, Morais and Sofuoglu. The event was stopped at the red flag due to a minor fall of Roberto Rolfo, but with liquid on the track. We started again with the original grid, this time for 11 laps. Federico Caricasulo was allowed to start at the back of the grid.

Mahias took the holeshot ahead of Sofuoglu, Jacobsen and Morais. The four men broke away while Cluzel was ninth, ahead of Caricasulo who was well recovered (and penalized with a ride through due to an early start). Mahias and Sofuoglu were fighting for first place, 1 second ahead of Jacobsen and Morais. Gamarino fifth was at 2.8 and Cluzel seventh at 3.7. Sofuoglu took the lead 9 laps from the checkered flag, then the race was stopped again at the red flag due to a crash involving three drivers (Roberto Rolfo, Kazuki Watanabe and Marco Malone, all OK).