WSBK – Haga retains the advantage at Magny-Cours – Course Supersport

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Haga retains the advantage at Magny-Cours

WSBK - Haga retains the advantage at Magny-Cours - Course Supersport

The Haga – Spies duel took place yesterday for the French WSBK event at Magny-Cours, but it will be necessary to wait for the final to decide between them … In Supersport, Crutchlow takes advantage of a fall by Laverty to take to the open sea. Strongly Portimao !

Supersport Race

Lascorz takes the lead ahead of Crutchlow, Sofuoglu, and Laverty. Kenan narrowly escapes a highside and loses three places against Laverty, Pitt and Fujiwara. The Kawa ‘n ° 26 prints a fast pace which stretches the leading group. Crutchlow and Laverty, however, remain hooked. The hunting party includes Pitt, Fuji, Foret, Sofuoglu, Veneman, Aitchison and McCoy.

Cal took the lead on the second loop and tried to build up the lead. Lascorz stood up to Laverty and even managed to take the lead again on the 3rd passage through Adelaide! "Braking seemed easy and it helped me defend myself in the corners or attack", observed the Spanish Ninja.

Behind, Fabien Foret struggled and did not leave Fujiwara’s aspi, who still led the peloton. In front, Laverty takes 2nd place and then 1st! But in Adelaide, Lascorz takes back the controls. Just behind, Crutchlow momentarily loses contact and sees Foret climb back up on him….

Laverty is lost in the law which controls the final chicane in the 5th lap: the Irishman loses two places, so that the two official Yamaha now complete the provisional podium !

On the French side, we note a first abandonment: that of Fabrice Auger on mechanical breakage … "The world level is light years away from that of the French championship", admit the 25-year-old pilot….

"For example, Cal Crutchlow’s pole is 3.9 seconds behind the best time in French Supersport !", will remark Fabrice,"it is a huge chasm, explained in large part by the difference in preparation between the two categories: wanting to limit costs in the French championship is quite laudable, but when we find ourselves in the world, the difference in performance is good too high to hope to hook a good wagon".

To the chagrin of the French public too, Fabien Foret lost the lead on the 5th lap! His official No. 99 R6 glided for a long time on the asphalt, but when Fabien picked it up and set off again on the track, we began to hope for a fantastic comeback of which he had the secret! Unfortunately the Charentais joined his box two laps later…

Lascorz is still in the lead ahead of Crutchlow and Laverty who inherited 3rd place from Fabien. Behind, Sofuoglu finally got rid of his teammate Pitt, Fujiwara and Aitchison

In the 8th lap, Aitchison attacked Pitt for the gain of 5th place. Five seconds ahead, Sofuoglu was slightly behind the inseparable top three. As the Turk joins the three men, he takes advantage of the passage in front of the pits to clean his visor and again loses contact !

Behind, another quartet composed of Aitchison, Pitt, Fujiwara and West offers a superb spectacle. The three French drivers still on the track are further away: Matthieu Lagrive occupies 11th place, Olivier Four 14th and Julien Enjolras 20th.

Very efficient under braking, particularly in that of Adelaide, the Ninja n ° 26 keeps the lead of the race ahead of the Yam n ° 35 and the two Honda n ° 50 and 54. Halfway, at the exit of Adelaide , Laverty overtakes his great rival in the Crutchlow championship…

But the joy of Eugene and his fans did not last long: the # 50 Honda lost front end and crashed! "I wanted to put Lascorz between us but the fuel level had dropped and I got screwed. Usually I have a few alerts and then put more weight on the front but this time I didn’t get any and fell", will analyze Laverty…

So will Crutchlow ensure? It’s far from certain: Lascorz is only half a second ahead of English !

In 4th position, Mark Aitchison has momentarily lost company to his three comrades but is far too far away to hope to climb on the podium. In 15th position, Eugene Laverty fights to keep his chances of crowning in Portimao, with his team Parkalgar…

With 8 laps to go, the situation seems to be stabilizing … Nevertheless, Cal Crutchlow does not relax his effort, so much so that he almost lost the front in Adelaide: the English is not pretending! Following this little heat, Lascorz wins a few tenths of a second over Cal. Kenan him approaches the hopping Yam ‘ !

At the heart of the peloton, Laverty always whips his CBR, whose right fairing flank grazes the track in the turns and brakes it in the straights! Moreover, Crutchlow’s team reports to their driver that the No. 50 is 14th…

The fight for 4th place continues: Pitt has rightly recovered the lead of the group at the expense of Aitchison immediately threatened by West. The Australian is out of Fujiwara’s reach. Lagrive is 9th, Four 11th, Eugene Laverty still 14th.

In front, Lascorz still leads but Crutchlow doesn’t give up! Sofuoglu seems to have thrown in the towel. Fortunately for the show, the last laps are very lively in the chase group: West takes the helm of this quartet after a superb fight between the three Honda. Behind, patient Fujiwara.

But the Japanese rider is right: West and Aitchison bicker under Adelaide’s braking, mix brushes and have to push aside giving way to 5th place to wise Katsuaki !

With two laps to go, Cal is within half a second of Joan … suddenly stretching her leg. Is Lascorz the victim of a cramp? No, the Spaniard reports that he saw the red flag waved by the marshals, soot from the falls of several competitors in the same turn !

With three quarters of the track contested, Lascorz was declared the winner of the race ahead of Crutchlow and Sofuoglu. For Kawasaki, this is his 8th victory in the SSP category, the 1st since that of Fabien Foret at Phillip Island in 2007 !

Finally, West is credited with 4th place ahead of Aitchison, Fuji and Pitt. These last two will not fail to point out that when the red flag was waved, it was rolling in front of their little comrades..

At Triumph, we deplore the abandonment of Davies and McCoy, due to the same problem: a problem with the radiator of the water / oil cooling circuit … "I am sure that without this damage, I would have repeated my performance at Imola", assures Chaz, 4th in Italy last week.

Cal Crutchlow for his part is certain he could have taken the victory: "Eugene fell but he didn’t give me a problem during the race", launches pilot Yam ‘,"the pace was slow and I knew that if needed I could line up the 1 ’41s until the end".

Laverty finished in 13th place and thus managed to limit Crutchlow’s lead in the championship. But with 230 points, Cal will still land in Portugal with a 19 point advantage over Eugene … "It will be our home race and we will have to win at all costs, who knows what will happen", concludes the Honda Parkalgar team rider !

In the constructors’ championship, the situation is even more tense: only one point separates Honda (272) from Yamaha (271)! Kawasaki is assured of the podium with 183 points, against 98 for Triumph and 30 for Suzuki.

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