Kawasaki Puccetti Racing has now completed round six of the Supersport World Championship at Donington Park in the UK. Lucas Mahias, who is standing in for injured Can Oncu, scored an exceptional fourth place finish in Superpole, but was slowed in race 1 by a few set-up issues that only emerged in the race, ultimately crossing the line in eleventh place.
This afternoon, the Frenchman was back on track for the second and final race of this British round. Like yesterday, Mahias lined up on the second row and made a very strong start which allowed him to run with the leading group. Unfortunately, during the course of lap seven, Lucas was hit and pushed off track by another rider (who was then penalized) and returned to the track in fourteenth position. Two laps later, the Frenchman was forced to retire due to a muscle seizure in his right forearm, which was only accentuated when he ran off track.
The next WorldSSP round will take place over the weekend of 14-16 July at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola in Italy.
Donington Park – UK – Supersport World Championship
Race 2 – 1) Bulega (Ducati) – 2) Montella (Ducati) – 3) Caricasulo (Ducati) – 4) Huertas (Kawasaki) – 5) Manzi (Yamaha) – 6) Booth-Amos (Kawasaki) …….. DNF) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Lucas Mahias
“A very difficult race. I made a good start and was fighting at the front when a rider hit me and ran me off track. I ended up on the grass and it was a miracle I didn’t crash. I don’t know if it was caused by that, but shortly after I started to feel pain in the muscles in the right forearm, which seized up. It was too risky to continue in that condition and so I chose to retire. I’m sorry for the team as they’ve worked so hard this weekend and I really wanted to give them a good result.”
