Portugal – Portimão – WSSP Portugal: Caricasulo, happy winner under the red flag –

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WSSP Portugal: Caricasulo, happy winner under the red flag

Portugal - Portimão - WSSP Portugal: Caricasulo, happy winner under the red flag -

Federico Caricasulo was the fastest yesterday in Superpole. He was the luckiest today in the race! The Italian n ° 64 almost accidentally wins the shortened Supersport event in Portimao, ahead of his teammate Krummenacher and our compatriots Mahias and Cluzel… Report.

Two months without riding. The World Supersport riders who do not traditionally go to Laguna Seca for the American event, had not ridden their 600 cc since July 7 and the Donington Park race, won by our international Jules Cluzel !

The n ° 16 of the GMT94 team and his little comrades therefore took to the track again this weekend. And what a lead! The layout of Portimao is like real Russian-Portuguese mountains, with dizzying descents, big climbs (well yes!) And lots of blind turns that require a solid chassis, a good engine and a big heart.

Author of pole position during the opening round in Australia and then in the last event to date in England, Federico Caricasulo was again the fastest yesterday at the controls of his excellent R6 prepared by the Yamaha Bardahl team.

Randy Krummenacher recovered well from his big crash on Friday morning and posted the second fastest time in qualifying. The leader of the provisional (173 pts) will start behind his Italian teammate and main rival in the championship (158) … and ahead of Lucas Mahias who hoists his Ninja n ° 44 to the first row for the fourth time in a row.

Third in the 2019 World Supersport general classification with 132 points, Cluzel will have to get off to a good start from eighth place on the Portuguese grid, in order to compete for victory against the two yellow R6s. Which is quite possible: this Sunday morning during warm-up, "Julo" was spinning as fast as Randy…

Paradoxically, the "other" Jules, Danilo, is much more satisfied with his tenth place: the n ° 95 "rookie" of the Honda PTR team has never qualified so high on a WSSP grid! The second driver of the French team GMT94, Corenton Perolari, will start from a distant 14th place, following an engine problem in qualifying. Gaetan Matren qualifies 27th and last.

Departure : Caricasulo and Mahias start much better from the first row than Krummenacher. Vinales and Cluzel are also starting very strong and both ahead of the championship leader! Perolari, De rosa, Okubo, Pons, Badovini complete the Top 10, Cresson and Danilo on their heels. The n ° 64 takes the lead and completes a first lap without incident.

Vinales attempted an attack on the first braking of the 2nd lap but pulled away and had to give back the controls to Caricasulo. Mahias and Cluzel are not getting carried away: they know the race will be long. They also know that Krummenacher follows them very closely.

Isaac Vinales signed the fastest lap in the race, but the nine leading men turned in the same quarter of a second, under 1 ’47 … Perolari passed stealthily in front of De Rosa at the start of the third lap. The n ° 3 and the n ° 94 are half a second behind the n ° 21.

Caricasulo accelerates in the 4th lap! Mahias immediately overtook Vinales to prevent any escape from the Italian. Behind the Spaniard now third, Krummenacher passes Cluzel … Randy and Jules in turn overtake Isaac … who gives up on technical glitch before the end of the 5th lap.

Lucas has to whip his Ninja to keep pace with Federico. Forced to delay its braking to compensate for lower engine power, our favorite n ° 44 is slightly missing in the first curve of the 6th lap. He momentarily loses contact but picks up quickly, carrying Randy in his wake….

Jules is just a second behind the trio but signs his best laps in the race in the 6th then 7th laps. The n ° 16 gets back in the asp of the Ninja n ° 44 … and prays that Krummenacher does not overtake his teammate too soon, still leading the race.

The Swiss pilot crosses his trajectories with those of the Italian but does not find an opening. Or does he keep it for the last lap? Even in the straight line, well wedged in the aspiration of his colleague since the exit of the fast final curve, Randy shifts but does not put the brakes on Federico !

While n ° 21 stumbles over – patient behind? – the leader, n ° 44, 16 and 3 (!) get closer: relatively discreet since the start of the race, the official MV Agusta reappears at the head of the race and puts pressure on Cluzel, himself focused on Mahias. Halfway through the race is reached and the two Yamaha Bardahl give themselves a few lengths of respite.

At the very start of the 10th lap, Raffaele de Rosa jumped to fourth place: Jules Cluzel bowed to his old horse under braking. The Montluçon rider must continue to watch his rear: Ayrton Badovini and his Kawasaki n ° 86 gradually come back to the leading group…

At the same time, Krummenacher takes the reins of the Portuguese race. Caricasulo and Mahias follow without too much difficulty, while De Rosa has to flirt with the limits of his F3 to try to recover. The n ° 3 passes besides to a hair highside tire in the first curve of the 13th lap…

Cluzel took advantage of the impressive cabriole of his predecessor to return to the pots of the MV Agusta …. then a breakage of the beautiful – but fragile – Italian mechanics to recover his fourth place! There are still five laps to go when the red flags are waved by the marshals.

With two-thirds of the race over, the 2019 WSSP Portimao race is officially over. The classification is established according to the places occupied by the drivers on their very last partial … Back in the lead just before completing the 14th lap, Federico Caricasulo is therefore declared the winner. !

Second to a third of a second from Federico – and five laps from the checkered flag which will never be deployed … – Randy Krummenacher must be satisfied with second place and his 10 points. The two best enemies offer Yamaha Bardhal the team title (376 points in nine events, against 204 for the GMT94).

In the drivers’ championship, the Swiss lead was reduced by 5 points against the Italian … but consolidated by 7 points against Cluzel! Fourth in this involuntarily shortened race, n ° 16 is now 48 points behind Krummenacher, almost two wins … while there are only three races left..

Lucas Mahias, who planned an attack in the very last moments of the race, climbs for the third time in a row on the third step of the podium. Ayrton Badovini adds a touch of green to the Portuguese Top 5, half a second behind Cluzel, and 5 seconds ahead of Perolari on his Yam n ° 94.

Jules Danilo equaled his best result obtained in the opening round at Philip Island: the n ° 95 rider of the Honda PRT team finished ninth, just ahead of the Belgian Loris Cresson on his R6 n ° 84 of the Yamaha Kallio team. Gaetan Matern finished in 21st and last place.

WSSP 2019 race result in Portimao

Portugal - Portimão - WSSP Portugal: Caricasulo, happy winner under the red flag -

World Supersport 2019 ranking after nine races

Portugal - Portimão - WSSP Portugal: Caricasulo, happy winner under the red flag -

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