Haga takes the reins of the championship !

Noriyuki Haga brilliantly took over from Troy Bayliss on Sunday at Phillip Island and if Ben Spies was surprised in the first round, he largely caught up in the second … In Supersport, Sofuoglu won in front of two Australians !

Supersport Race

As always, the Supersport race will not disappoint: during the first ten laps, the nine leading drivers are in the same second. These are, naturally out of order, Lascorz, Pitt, Crutchlow, Veneman – the four Japanese manufacturers are there! -, Aitchison, Laverty, Foret, West and Sofuoglu.

McCoy completely missed his start and is in 16th position behind his teammate, the flamboyant Nannelli. The Italian will finish 11th and the Australian 14th. We expected better from Triumph, the only non-Japanese brand registered in the championship. But what does Ducati do ?

Gritting his teeth, Fabien Foret manages to steal Ninja Lascorz’s head in the 2nd loop: "the leading group was very tight so it was really nice". But very quickly, the Frenchman was forced to lay down his arms and fell back to 7th place.

"Unfortunately the pain in my shoulder got worse and my arm started to go numb, so it became very difficult for me to ride.", explained the pilot Yam ‘who will finally score 9 well-deserved points.

Very quickly, the Honda armada seized the lead: Andrew Pitt took the lead in the 3rd lap while West and Sofuoglu took a little longer to get rid of the Suz ‘de Veneman, the Kawa de Lascorz and Yam ‘de Foret and Crutchlow…

Starting from 12th place on the grid, Anthony West had to make his way through the peloton and climbed onto the virtual podium from the 8th lap. "The bike was running very well and I took the lead on the 19th lap", will tell the pilot of the Stiggy team.

For his part, Kenan Sofuoglu is showing greater caution: "I drove as slowly as I could because we were worried about the rear tire", will indicate the n ° 54 on his arrival. But the call for victory is irresistible and Kenan goes on the attack at the halfway point. !

From then on, the tone was set: Sofuoglu, Pitt and West gradually broke away from Lascorz and Crutchlow to compete for the three steps of the podium, and the condition of the tires at the finish would not matter. !

"It was a funny race because at the beginning, we drove slowly to save rubber", will insist the 2008 champion Andrew Pitt who signs with five laps from the end the best lap in the race and is in 2nd position.

The final is explosive: Anthony, Andrew and Kenan exchange their places at each passage in front of the pits, to the delight of the spectators. The Ten Kates in particular, fanned by the Stiggy which leads the race with two laps from the end, engage in a superb duel…

"I believe Andrew and I touched each other at one point, which must have freaked out Ronald"(Ten Kate, their manager, Editor’s note), even Kenan will testify !

In the end, it was the Turkish driver who pocketed the first victory of the season in front of the two premises of the event, Pitt and West. Aitchison and Laverty follow after a second: for only a thousandth, the R6 n ° 35 takes 4th place !

Fabien Foret finishes in a solitary and courageous 7th place while Matthieu Lagrive blows, in the very last lap, the 11th place to Veneman and Pirro !

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