WSBK Supersport Barcelona Race 1: Krummenacher wins after a crazy race!

The Swiss driver found his way to victory at the end of an event marked by mixed conditions which considerably reshuffled the cards. He is ahead of Manuel González and Raffaele De Rosa under the checkered flag.

Race 1 of the Supersport category was not without surprises! The absences of leading drivers such as championship leader Dominique Aegerter, but also Jules Cluzel and Luca Bernardi already promised to shake up the established order, but the vagaries of the weather ended up transforming this first event of the day like real Russian roulette.

The start was given in dry conditions and took place without incident if we put aside the holeshot made by Can Öncü, the Turk who took off from tenth place on the grid (!) to take off level with Randy Krummenacher approaching the first turn. The two men came into contact and the second city had no choice but to shoot straight ahead to avoid falling.

 

Arbel takes advantage of the rain to take the lead

Öncü, however, was not able to benefit from his leading position for long, with the first drops of rain appearing at the start of the second loop in the first sector. The Turkish driver then shot straight into the first turn, just like Steven Odendaal. This left the way clear for pole sitter Manuel González to take back the reins of the race.

 

 

This leadership was again very ephemeral since the entire field returned to the pits at the end of the second lap to change bikes and use rain tires while the latter was intensifying on the Montmeló circuit. Only the Frenchman Loïc Arbel courageously attempted to stay on slick on the track, thus finding himself in the lead of the race for a few laps.

Behind him, Odendaal then thought he could carry out the right operation by coming back at him at high speed, sometimes at the cost of big scares such as a highside at the exit of turn 5. Finally the South African quickly became disillusioned, at first by not keeping the pace of the drivers behind him, Krummenacher overtook him to gain second place in the last corner of the sixth lap.

Odendaal sanctioned

The latter subsequently recovered the lead in the following lap after a nice maneuver on Arbel, while for his part Odendaal drank the chalice to the dregs by being sanctioned with more than 25 seconds of penalty, attributed to his time of race afterwards, for leaving the pits too soon after changing the wheels.

He therefore finished in eighth place after taking his sanction into account. González and De Rosa thus join Krummenacher on the podium, after finishing more than fifteen seconds behind the Helvetian.

 

Fourth place went to Öncü ahead of Philipp Öttl and Arbel, the Frenchman who took advantage of the circumstances to achieve his best result in the category. Hannes Soomer takes seventh place ahead of Odendaal, while the top 10 is completed by Peter Sebestyen and Glenn van Straalen. Note that Frenchman Andy Verdoïa was forced to retire at the start of the race following a collision with another driver in the first corner.

 

Supersport Catalonia – Race 1:

 

 Classification credit: WorldSBK.com