Odendaal wins ahead of Cluzel and Caricasulo – Domi only fifth
The sun and the strong wind had done a great job after the rainy Sunday morning. Picture book weather was the order of the day when the WorldSSP field started the race in Portugal for the second and last time this year. This also meant the last race for pilots like Kevin Manfredi, who like some others only contest the World Championship races in Europe. In this respect, many will be missing in Argentina and Indonesia, which will manifest itself in a much leaner ranking. Said Italian fought bravely and by the middle of the race the little man from Sarzana was in the top fifteen. At the top, Cluzel, Odendaal and Aegerter alternated in the first half, until De Rosa, Gonzalez and Caricasulo also began to mix at the front. Just behind them Montella, Tuuli and Öttl, while Krummenacher already had a clear gap in front of him on P10.
The decision about victory and podium placements
With two laps to go, the World Championship leader missed turn one, and Dominique Aegerter was as good as out of the race for victory. Shortly afterwards, Niki Tuuli and Raffaele de Rosa fell, leaving the Swiss on P5. But his gap to the top group was too big. There Steven Odendaal led the field ahead of Cluzel, Caricasulo and Gonzalez before the final corners. The World Cup runner-up managed to stay in front and, with a narrow gap ahead of the French and the Italian, he took the third win of the season. The Spaniard had to settle for P4 ahead of the World Cup leader and Jules Cluzel was the overall winner of the Portugal round. Despite rank 5, Dominique Aegerter was also happy to travel home from Portugal to Switzerland. His lead in the World Championships is still very comfortable and without technical problems or crashes, the first World Championship of his long career can hardly be taken from him.
The winners and losers of the last European round
In addition to the world championship leader and the men on the podium, Kevin Manfredi was one of the drivers who was more than enthusiastic about the outcome of the weekend. The man with the appearance of Gimli from the famous “Lord of the Rings” trilogy won the European title in WorldSSP 600. The man with the stature of a hobbit will not be there in Argentina and Indonesia, but he can definitely be proud of his achievement. In addition to the fallen pilots, the losers included Randy Krummenacher (Yamaha) and Philipp Öttl (Kawasaki), who again fell well short of expectations with his ninth place and thus lost many valuable points in the championship.
The last race of Portimão and Europe in numbers
The Interviews of the top 3 after the race
Jules Cluzel rightly spoke of a perfect weekend and despite a narrowly missed double victory, he was extremely satisfied. However, the bike from Odendaal is very fast, and therefore it would not have been enough. The Frenchman said he will try to continue this uptrend over the last two rounds. Of course, Federico Caricasulo was also very satisfied after his first podium of the season. The Italian stated that his team had made some changes to the setup of his Yamaha R6 before the race. After he was often just barely at the front, he was relieved that it finally worked for a podium again. Steven Odendaal emphasized that this win meant a lot to him. His team would have worked brilliantly overnight and provided a perfect bike. The South African thanked his family and everyone who supported him, and at that moment he was definitely the happiest person on this planet.
The Autodromo do Algarve
Stand in the WorldSSP 600 world championships
The world championship leader could miss two races and still keep the championship lead afterwards. In this respect, his closest rival can hardly win the title on his own. For his team from Italy, after having won two titles, the runner-up would be a more than acceptable result. Odendaal himself could not complain about that either, and one way or another he will try his best in the overseas races to put Aegerter at least a bit more under pressure.
P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. DOMINIQUE AEGERTER 354 YAMAHA
2. STEVEN ODENDAAL 300 YAMAHA
3. MANUEL GONZALEZ 249 YAMAHA
4. PHILIPP OETTL 232 KAWASAKI
5. JULES CLUZEL 191 YAMAHA
6. LUCA BERNARDI 161 YAMAHA
7. FEDERICO CARICASULO 142 YAMAHA
8. RANDY KRUMMENACHER 140 YAMAHA
9. RAFFAELE DE ROSA 137 KAWASAKI
10. CAN ALEXANDER ONCU 127 KAWASAKI
11. NIKI TUULI 112 MV AGUSTA
12. HANNES SOOMER 72 YAMAHA
13. CHRISTOFFER BERGMAN 47 YAMAHA
14. PETER SEBESTYEN 44 YAMAHA
15. MARC ALCOBA 40 YAMAHA
16. KEVIN MANFREDI 36 YAMAHA
17. MARCEL BRENNER 26 YAMAHA
18. GALANG HENDRA PRATAMA 24 YAMAHA
19. VERTTI TAKALA 23 YAMAHA
20. SIMON JESPERSEN 22 YAMAHA
21. YARI MONTELLA 16 YAMAHA
22. ANDY VERDOIA 14 YAMAHA
23. GLENN VAN STRAALEN 13 YAMAHA
24. DAVID SANCHIS MARTINEZ 12 YAMAHA
25. PATRICK HOBELSBERGER 11 YAMAHA
26. LOIC ARBEL 10 YAMAHA
27. STEPHANE FROSSARD 10 YAMAHA
28. VALENTIN DEBISE 9 YAMAHA
29. SHERIDAN MORAIS 9 YAMAHA
30. STEFANO MANZI 7 YAMAHA
31. MATTEO PATACCA 7 YAMAHA
32. MARIA HERRERA 7 YAMAHA
33. FEDERICO FULIGNI 7 YAMAHA
34. FILIPPO FULIGNI 6 YAMAHA
35. MICHEL FABRIZIO 6 KAWASAKI
36. MAX ENDERLEIN 5 YAMAHA
37. ROBERTO MERCANDELLI 5 YAMAHA
38. HIKARI OKUBO 4 KAWASAKI
39. MASSIMO ROCCOLI 4 YAMAHA
40. LEONARDO TACCINI 4 KAWASAKI
41. LUCA GRUNWALD 3 SUZUKI
42. ONDREJ VOSTATEK 3 YAMAHA
43. UNAI ORRADRE 2 YAMAHA
44. DANIEL VALLE 2 YAMAHA
45. LUDOVIC CAUCHI 1 YAMAHA
46. OSCAR GUTIERREZ IGLESIAS 1 YAMAHA
47. LUCA OTTAVIANI 1 KAWASAKI
48. DAVIDE PIZZOLI 1 YAMAHA
49. PAWEL SZKOPEK 1 YAMAHA
The calendar, with only two rounds to go
In the end, FIM and Dorna confirmed the two questionable rounds in Argentina and Indonesia. In view of the loss of sponsors, this is one of the reasons why numerous drivers and teams either do not participate at all or only take part in Europe. The most prominent victims were Loris Baz, whose Ten Kate team failed to raise the money for a full season in WorldSBK. But even for top Supersport drivers like the Austrian Thomas Gradinger and the German Patrick Hobelsberger, there was no chance for a full season in the second Corona year.
Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).
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