[Supersport] Qualifying at Magny-Cours: Jules Cluzel can still be World Champion

With only three races left to go, with Argentina and Qatar after the Nièvre, Jules is only sixteen points behind the Championship leader, the German Sandro Cortese. The situation would be very different if Cortese had not caused Cluzel to crash in the last race at Portimao. The gesture was clearly involuntary, Sandro apologized, but it will now be necessary that during the last three races Jules does not give up absolutely anything against his Teutonic rival. Also watch out for Federico Caricasulo and Randy Krummenacher who are only 4 points behind the Frenchman.

The weekend started well for Cluzel (Yamaha NRT) with the best time in 1'40.941. The pole position record has already belonged to Jules since 2014 (then on MV Agusta F3 675) in 1'40.550. The lap record (in the race) is to the credit of Cal Crutchlow on Yamaha R6 in 1'41.407 since... 2009!

Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team) also qualified directly for Superpole 2 on Friday, with the second time 0.239 behind Cluzel. Others transferred to SP2 were Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing), Randy Krummenacher (Bardahl Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team), Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team), Frenchman Corentin Perolari (GMT94 Yamaha), Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag), Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), Thomas Gradinger (NRT) and Kyle Smith (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda).

During Superpole 1, the two drafted were Hannes Soomer and Ayrton Badovini. Hector Barbera failed in fifth position (including fifteenth overall. The French Maximilien Bau (Yamaha MaxiGP108) and Gaëtan Matern (Kawasaki Flembbo Leader Team) qualified 22nd and 28th respectively on the starting grid.

During the second Superpole, intended to place the 12 fastest drivers on the first 4 rows of the starting grid, the French spectators counted on Jules Cluzel, Lucas Mahias and Corentin Perolari.

Sandro Cortese took the lead in 1'41.192 (compared to the record of 1'40.550) ahead of Lucas Mahias and Corentin Perolari. Raffaele de Rosa fell without seriousness with his MV Agusta, but with his chances of qualifying reduced due to the short time available. Fortunately for him, the session was stopped at the red flag due to the condition of the track.

The session started again with just under 10 minutes available. Federico Caricasulo led in 1'41.023, ahead of Cortese, Krummenacher, Mahias, Perolari and Cluzel.

Jules Cluzel took the lead in 1'40.952 4 minutes from the checkered flag. Then Lucas Mahias took over the lead in 1'40.568, a hundredth of a second off the record. Sandro Cortese fell without gravity.

Federico Caricasulo beat the record in 1'40.416 and took pole position ahead of Lucas Mahias and Jules Cluzel. Cortese had to be content with the second row after his fall, from where he started with Randy Krummenacher and the brilliant Corentin Perolari.

Qualification results:

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

Race time:

Sunday at 13:45 p.m.

Above: Federico Caricasulo

Photos © worldsbk.com / Dorna