The second day of action making up round four of the Supersport World Championship played out today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
Lucas Mahias, the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider who is standing in for injured Can Oncu, classified fourteenth in yesterday’s free practice sessions having set a best lap of 1’46”224.
This morning, in hot and sunny conditions, the Frenchman was back out for the Superpole, during which he improved on his lap time by a second (1’45”227) to qualify thirteenth, which meant a fifth row start for the afternoon’s 18-lap race.
The Frenchman made a strong start but then got caught up in a group and slipped back a few positions. Having run inside the points zone for almost the entire race, Mahias lost two places in the final stages after coming into contact with another rider. This meant that he finished his race in sixteenth place, just outside the points zone.
Tomorrow will see Lucas competing in the final race making up this fourth WorldSSP round.
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – Spain – Supersport World Championship
Superpole: 1) Bulega (Ducati) – 2) Schroetter (MV Agusta) – 3) Caricasulo (Ducati) – 4) Edwards (Yamaha) – 5) Van Straalen (Yamaha) ….. 13) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Race 1 – 1) Bulega (Ducati) – 2) Schroetter (MV Agusta) – 3) Sofuoglu (MV Agusta) – 4) Van Straalen (Yamaha) – 5) Caricasulo (Ducati) – 6) Manzi (Yamaha)……. 16) Mahias (Kawasaki)
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“It was difficult competing in my first WorldSSP race for the first time in two and a half years. The category has changed a lot compared to how it was. The feeling in the first two laps is that there is too much aggression in the pack. Now everyone is trying to win the race right away. I also think I wasn’t really lucky today because one guy crashed in front of me, causing me to lose time, and another guy pushed me offline, which put me back further. This isn’t an excuse but with a bit more luck I could have battled for tenth or eleventh, but that wasn’t to be today. The conditions were quite hot, so I tried to manage the tyres as best I could, but I will try to be better tomorrow.”
