The first race with victory number 3 for Steven Odendaal
After Bardahl Evan Bros Yamaha won the WorldSSP title twice in a row in 2019 with Krummenacher and in 2020 with Locatelli, Steven Odendaal has now managed the hat trick. The South African won the third race of the season in a row after his one-two in Aragon at the Circuito do Estoril. Although he had only led five of the 18 laps, in the end he was ahead by a nose. It was the 22nd victory since 2019 for his Italian team, whose drivers had dominated for the past two years. After 13 laps in the lead, Philipp Öttl was still happy for second place because he had a black spot in his season record in Aragon in the second race. Third, Jules Cluzel also successfully managed damage control after the Frenchman failed to score points at the season opener after being shot down by Niki Tuuli and then achieved the first countable result in the second run with third place. Below is the result of the first day in both classes.
The dramatic second race in Portugal
It looked like on Saturday the following day after a duel between Odendaal and Öttl, who had been in the lead from the start, with which the victory was to be decided. But in the 12th round Raffaele de Rosa and Dominique Aegerter passed the runner-up and a little later it was the young German’s turn. The Italian was absent on the third from last lap after he had retired from the race with a crash at Turn 9. In the last deal, the South African had unspeakable bad luck when his bike gave up shortly before the chequered flag due to a technical problem. Ten Kate Yamaha rider Aegerter won his first race in the near-series World Championship and Öttl crossed the finish line third. The German made a jump from P7 to 3rd place on the interim rankings and is back in the race for the title.
The winners and losers of the second round of the World Championship in Portugal
Between Aegerter and Öttl, the second-placed Luca Bernardi (CM Racing) was the biggest sensation at the finish. The Italian, who drives with a licence from the small state of San Marino, showed a strong finish just like the young Manuel Gonzalez in 4th place and had absolutely deserved his first podium. Hannes Soomer was also able to convince with ranks 8 and 5 in Estoril. The Estonian is on the 5th intermediate place in the World Cup. Can Öncü did better on Sunday than his brother Deniz on the same day and achieved the best result of the season so far with rank 7. Christopher Bergman and Jules Cluzel, on the other hand, suffered setbacks. While the Swede was unable to match the good results from Aragon, the Frenchman fell in the second race. With only 4 points, he fell back to 8th place in the World Cup.
The “Krummenator” – still a long way from the announced season goal
In theory, one could or should have named Randy Krummenacher in the same breath as his compatriot Aegerter, Öttl, Caricasulo, Cluzel and Niki Tuuli. However, the Swiss who had been decried as polluting the nest in the paddock since his dubious exit from MV Agusta and the subsequent dubious accusations against his team has not yet convinced. After missing the top ten result with three ninth places in the first race in Aragon, he is now ranked 9th in the World Championship. To keep his announcements before the start of the season and, as a self-proclaimed co-favourite for the title, also deliver the corresponding results soon. His teammate from 2019 Federico Caricasulo has also owed a lot so far.
Stand in the world championship before the races in Misano
Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).
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