The sun that shone down on the Estoril track yesterday gave way to clouds today, although temperatures remained fairly high. In yesterday’s WorldSSP free practices, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders Can Oncu and Yari Montella worked together with their technicians in preparation for the Superpole and the weekend’s two races.
Oncu (1’40”963) finished in ninth place, followed by Montella (1’41”167), eleventh-
The third Superpole of the season got underway in the late morning. The young Turkisj rider improved on his best time (1’40”453) to finish eighth. The Italian also lowered his lap time (1’40”694) to move into twelfth position. With these results, Oncu started from the third row of the grid and Montella from the fourth for the afternoon’s 18-lap race.
Oncu made a very fast start which allowed him to move into the leading group and take the lead by the end of lap one. Can held first place until lap seven, when he dropped to second, still in the mix for the win. In the final stages, the Turk lost ground and ultimately crossed the line fourth, just missing out on a podium finish by a fraction of a second. Montella ran a solid race as he continued to climb up the field before crossing the line sixth, the Italian’s best result of the season so far. Yari could have done even better if a drop in tyre performance hadn’t penalised him through the final laps.
In the championship standings, Oncu places fifth with 45 points while Montella is ninth with 30. Tomorrow, the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders will be back out for the second and final race making up this Portuguese event.
Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Supersport World Championship
Superpole: 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Bulega (Ducati) – 3) Van Straalen (Yamaha) – 4) Baldassarri (Yamaha) – 5) Cluzel (Yamaha) ……. 8) Oncu (Kawasaki) …….. 12) Montella (Kawasaki)
Race 1 – 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Baldassarri (Yamaha) – 3) Bulega (Ducati) – 4) Oncu (Kawasaki) – 5) Caricasulo (Ducati) – 6) Montella (Kawasaki)
Can Oncu
“I pushed to the max right from the start because I wanted to win. I moved into the lead but from about mid-race on, I started to lose ground and missed out on the podium by just a fraction. I’m sorry about the result but pleased because we have once again shown that we can run up front and battle for the win. A big thanks to my whole team.”
Yari Montella
“Once again today we had confirmation that we’re continuing to improve. We can now be quick right from the initial stages and need to learn to manage our potential all the way to the line. I’m quite pleased with my result today, which could have been better without the drop in tyre performance which affected me over the last laps. A good sixth place finish that I am nevertheless taking as a starting point and not an end point. I want to thank the entire team as they’ve worked really hard today.”
