Two weeks after his first success in Supersport, the Spanish driver won again in Race 2 after a sublime battle against Raffaele de Rosa. Niki Tuuli completes the podium.
When the lights went out, Manuel González managed to stay in the lead narrowly ahead of Randy Krummenacher and Philipp Öttl. If the German driver subsequently gradually demoted in the hierarchy, his Swiss counterpart applied constant pressure on Gonzalez to try to gain the upper hand.
Krummenacher came alongside the Spanish driver as he approached turn 1 on the second lap, but his trajectory, located on the outside, did not allow him to pass in front. This first skirmish at the front had meanwhile caused Can Öncü's rise from tenth place on the grid to go unnoticed.
Glory and disappointment for Öncü
The Turkish driver was indeed patient to dynamite the peloton and defeat his opponents one by one to take the wheel of the two leaders of the race. He passed Krummenacher in the first turn on the third lap, before taking the advantage at the same place a lap later on González.
The hierarchy subsequently stabilized for a few laps, but the winner of the 2018 Valencia Grand Prix in the Moto3 category failed to repeat his performance from three years ago, initially starting to drop the revs to drop to fourth place, before making a mistake on the eighth lap at the exit of turn 5.
Disappointment for @canoncu61 😔💥#CatalanWorldSBK pic.twitter.com/tWRfDQlmD7
- WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) September 19, 2021
From then on, the fight for victory invited Raffaele de Rosa in addition to Krummenacher and González. The latter held on for long laps at the head of the race, before experiencing a brief mechanical problem (a missed speed?) in the first turn of the 14th lap.
Slowing down for a few seconds, the winner of Race 2 at Magny-Cours did not, however, draw a line under the victory and returned to work to make a new comeback, this time from the fourth place. The latter thus managed to get rid of Niki Tuuli then Randy Krummenacher to be in second position entering the last two laps of the race.
De Rosa's first victory will wait
In the lead, Raffaele de Rosa thought he would finally have his first success in the category but saw González go inside him on the very last loop in turn 6. The Italian tried to respond a few turns further on, in the turn 10, in turn making the inside of his opponent while braking, but he pulled straight on and instantly lost all the benefit of his maneuver.
WHAT A RECOVERY!!!
@Manugasss_18 takes a thrilling #WorldSSP win in Race 2 to deny @RAFF_35 a chance at a first win!#CatalanWorldSBK pic.twitter.com/X0MNiDhWmf
- WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) September 19, 2021
Behind González, who signed his second victory in the category, and De Rosa, Tuuli completed the podium after taking advantage of a scare from Krummenacher, who passed very close to the highside on the last lap. Marcel Brenner takes fifth place, thus ensuring the presence of two Helvetians in the top 5.
Federico Caricasulo finished this race in sixth place, ahead of Steven Odendaal, who ultimately recovered very few championship points from Dominique Aegerter in the latter's absence. Öttl, who for a time was at the forefront at the very start of the event, had to be content with eighth place at the finish. Finally, we can deplore the abandonment of the two French drivers, Loïc Arbel and Ludovic Cauchi.
