The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain today hosted the first race of the second WorldSSP round. Can Oncu was on track yesterday for free practice, after which he set a very fast time in Superpole to qualify second.
The Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider therefore lined up on the front row of the grid for the afternoon’s 18-lap race.
The young Turkish rider got away well as the lights went out, holding second position until around the mid-race point, when a drop in tyre performance forced him to slow his pace. This caused Oncu to slip back a little, but his eighth-place finish was nevertheless a strong result.
Tomorrow Oncu will return to the track for the second and final race of this Catalan round.
Circuit de Catalunya – Barcelona – Spain
Supersport World Championship
Race 1: 1) Huertas (Ducati) – 2) Manzi (Yamaha) – 3) Schroetter (MV Agusta) – 4) Montella (Ducati) – 5) Debise (Yamaha) – 6) Caricasulo (MV Agusta) – 7) Navarro (Triumph) – 8) Oncu (Kawasaki)
Can Oncu: “We tried to improve our pace today and managed to do so, but we need to continue pushing hard to be even better. It is not so easy and there is not anything special to say except we need to work harder. We set a good lap time in Superpole but in the race itself we suffered a big drop and I hope tomorrow we can find more grip to complete a better race. The initial pace we had was for the win, so we need to work ahead of race 2. Let’s see how it goes.”
