Start of the second and very chaotic race of the WorldSSP 600 in Most on Sunday afternoon – right in the first corner, it was already haywire.

Aegerter wins chaos race in the Czech Republic with victory number 6

No less than five drivers missed the first corner of the Autodrom in Most after the start. Later, Steven Odendaal was one of those who had to go into the emergency exit as the winner of the first race. The South African was then only in 9th position, while Aegerter, Gonzalez, Öttl and Bernardi fought for the lead. Jules Cluzel had been shot down by Kevin Manfredi while braking for Turn 1 and was already out of the race at this point. The pursuers followed closely behind the four fighting cocks in the lead with Öncü, de Rosa, Debise, Tuuli and Odendaal. After 7 of 19 laps, Odendaal was already fifth again, half a second behind the leading quartet. A little later, the World Cup runner-up was in the slipstream of Öttl, who was on P4.

Jules Cluzel (in the background) and culprit Kevin Manfredi (both Yamaha) in front of his bike after he lost control of his bike when braking for Turn 1 and brought the Frenchman down with him.

The fight for victory and the podium
While Aegerter was trying to pull away at the top, Odendaal was already past the German and third behind Manuel Gonzalez. With four laps to go, the top group of three had moved closer together. Philipp Öttl had lost touch and had to try to defend position 4 against Bernardi, Caricasulo and Debise, who were a respectable distance behind him. Shortly afterwards, Odendaal was on P2 and tried not to let the Swiss man in front of him move away. But Aegerter was not naked and brought his sixth win of the season safely to the finish. Behind him, just ahead of Gonzalez, the South African, who was the overall winner of the Czech round.

The landmark of the Autodrom in Most in the background and in the front of the picture some spectators from the terrace – the premiere in the Czech Republic was not limited in terms of the number of spectators, but the typical Corona restrictions applied, according to which, in principle, only limited and to a certain extent even senseless 3G rule, because a recovered, vaccinated and tested person can become infected at any time.

The result of the second race of the WorldSSP 600 in Most

Max Enderlein (Kallio Racing Yamaha) before the start of the second race – the German just barely missed the top ten with 11th place and thus scored five championship points.

The first interviews after the race
Dominique Aegerter was of course overjoyed and emphasized that he was also happy to be able to drive in front of fans again. Of course, he is more than satisfied with his victory, and now he will be back in MotoE a week later, where the next round in Spielberg is waiting for him. Arriving there as a WSSP World Championship leader is a great satisfaction for him. Steven Odendaal naturally spoke of a tough race in which he had to fight his way back after problems. But with second place, he would still have achieved a very good result. Now he hopes to be strong again in the next round and to be able to fight at the very front. Manual Gonzalez had a very good first lap, as he noted with a slight disappointment. Because towards the end he had serious problems according to his statement and felt unable to get back to P2. But of course he said in Spanish that he was really looking forward to his home race in Navarra and a little later the round in Barcelona would come.

The podium with, from left, Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team, P2), winner Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) and third-placed Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team).

The situation in the world championship after round 5

The still provisional calendar and what happens next

The two rounds with a dark grey background have been considered very questionable due to the pandemic since the FIM and Dorna plan was published for this year. For this reason, those responsible around the WSBK responsible Gregorio Lavilla are looking for additional possibilities to replace at least one or two of these events with races in Europe. At the moment, it is at least not clear or certain how many World Cup rounds there will be this season. In addition to the travel problem, the Mandalika Circuit is highly questionable, especially due to the unclear situation regarding the completion of the pit facilities and infrastructure. The next track is completely new, and there the WorldSBK riders expect a special layout. According to some critics, Navarra is more like a go-kart track than a World Cup-worthy circuit.

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).