Steven Odendaal with smoking boots on his Bardahl Evan Bros Yamaha, was the man of the first race at the premiere in Most, Czech Republic, when after two laps he only showed his opponents his rear wheel.

Odendaal ahead of Gonzalez and Öttl – Aegerter only fourth

It was not a race over the full distance, because after a violent crash by Marc Alcoba the race was stopped very late with red flags. At this point, Yamaha ace Steven Odendaal was clearly ahead of Manuel Gonzalez, who had just passed Kawasaki brand colleague Philipp Öttl. This wasn’t the only trouble for Bavarian, who had led the race in the first two laps. But at least he left world championship leader Dominique Aegerter well behind, who this time had to make do with fourth place. However, the Swiss still clearly retained the championship lead when he crossed the finish line in front of Caricasulo, Bernardi, Cluzel, Öncü and Tuuli. In contrast to WorldSBK, where a total of 9 drivers did not see the chequered flag, there were only 4 falls in the Supersport category, but one of them was more severe and therefore the reason for the premature termination of the race.

Danny Webb (WRP Wepol Racing Yamaha) was the first to fall victim when, like Caricasulo substitute Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha), who was also eliminated with a crash, he did not survive the first lap.

Federico Caricasulo immediately strong after the team change

Shortly after Assen, the Italian and the GMT94 Yamaha team announced their surprising split. Very surprisingly he reappeared in Most, but this time for the Biblion Iberica Yamaha Motoxracing Team. The Italian vice world champion from 2019 behind “Krummi” showed himself to be strong right away, and even he and his new team might not have expected 5th place. The first run of Most went less well for Jules Cluzel with seventh place, and Randy Krummenacher could not be at all satisfied with P11 behind the Hungarian Peter Sebestyen (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team). To end up outside the top ten after the podium in Assen was not what the Swiss had hoped for in the first race in the Czech Republic. Raffaele de Rosa also looked like a shadow on his Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki with 12th place compared to the previous years, when he was still racing for MV Agusta.

Kevin Manfredi (Altogo Racing Team, Yamaha) before the start of the first race – the not quite well-trained Italian with his full beard was even two places ahead of the WSSP world champion from 2019 on the starting grid this time. Randy Krummenacher only started from P18 after a crash in Turn 1 in Superpole.

Honorable result for the German wildcard pilots
On the first day, Luca Grünwald (HRP Suzuki) and Patrick Hobelsberger (GMT94 Yamaha) still benefited from their advantage through their track knowledge acquired at the IDM (International German Championship). In the first race, unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough for the points. But places 18 and 19 are quite remarkable. Even before the former WorldSBK star Michel Fabrizio (G.A.P. MOTOZOO Racing by Puccetti) on Kawasaki, his Italian compatriot Luigi Montella (Chiodo Moto Racing Yamaha) and numerous other World Championship riders, however, is a very honourable result. Still within the first 30, another German wild card driver, Max Enderlein (Kallio Racing Yamaha), saw the chequered flag.

Patrick Hobelsberger (GMT94 Yamaha) With his result he was able to prove again that he absolutely deserves a regular place in the WorldSSP 600. Originally he had a ticket for it in his pocket, but then came the less than honourable withdrawal of this team, unlike him, not worthy of the World Cup.

Result of the first race of Most

The first interviews after the race – after Toprak again with a Turk in the criticism
Steven Odendaal was of course overjoyed. It is wonderful to finally be at the top again. He would have fought his way back to the top at full throttle, and of course he hopes to be able to shine with a good result on Sunday too. After his first SSP 600 podium, Manuel Gonzalez was also very satisfied. Even so, the Spaniard said he was a bit disappointed that he missed the fight for victory because of the red flag. The third-placed was less satisfied. Philipp Öttl said he had a good race, but he disagreed with Öncü’s overtaking manoeuvre. But he’d better talk to him afterwards, and he wanted to try to make it clear to the Turks that a race would not be won in the first few laps. In addition, he drove as if he wanted to kill everyone.

Marc Alcoba (Yamaha MS Racing) after his violent crash, in which he injured his hand and which surprisingly only led to the termination of the race with red flags eight minutes later.

World Championship stand after 9 races
1. DOMINIQUE AEGERTER 169 YAMAHA
2. STEVEN ODENDAAL 125 YAMAHA
3. PHILIPP OETTL 108 KAWASAKI
4. LUCA BERNARDI 97 YAMAHA
5. JULES CLUZEL 91 YAMAHA
6. MANUEL GONZALEZ 84 YAMAHA
7. RANDY KRUMMENACHER 62 YAMAHA
8. HANNES SOOMER 47 YAMAHA
9. RAFFAELE DE ROSA 46 KAWASAKI
10. CAN ALEXANDER ONCU 43 KAWASAKI
11. MARC ALCOBA 40 YAMAHA
12. FEDERICO CARICASULO 39 YAMAHA
13. CHRISTOFFER BERGMAN 34 YAMAHA
14. NIKI TUULI 28 MV AGUSTA
15. VERTTI TAKALA 19 YAMAHA
16. KEVIN MANFREDI 19 YAMAHA
17. GALANG HENDRA PRATAMA 14 YAMAHA
18. PETER SEBESTYEN 9 YAMAHA
19. SHERIDAN MORAIS 8 YAMAHA
20. MARIA HERRERA 7 YAMAHA
21. FILIPPO FULIGNI 6 YAMAHA
22. MICHEL FABRIZIO 6 KAWASAKI
23. ROBERTO MERCANDELLI 5 YAMAHA
24. MASSIMO ROCCOLI 4 YAMAHA
25. MATTEO PATACCA 3 YAMAHA
26. STEPHANE FROSSARD 3 YAMAHA
27. LUCA OTTAVIANI 1 KAWASAKI
28. LEONARDO TACCINI 1 KAWASAKI
29. DAVIDE PIZZOLI 1 YAMAHA
30. PAWEL SZKOPEK 1 YAMAHA

The Autodrom of Most

The route sketch of Most, a course that is roughly the opposite of the Red Bull Ring and extremely demanding with 21 corners. It is also questionable whether the asphalt is suitable for the World Championship, which some voices had already questioned in advance.

WorldSBK Most schedule

Dorna’s insight into this came very late, but at least those responsible for SBK understood it on August 3rd and announced that the WSSP 300 would start first at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday. In order to avoid a collision with MotoGP in Spielberg for at least Sunday, WorldSBK starts at 3:15 p.m. local time. After all, the second run is left on Sunday afternoon to show it live on TV. Otherwise, however, as expected, the MotoGP has priority in their broadcasts on practically all broadcasters. Because Dorna communicated this so late and 3 days before the start, we did not correct it in the following schedule.

As the culmination of the bad planning by FIM and Dorna, the first race of the WorldSBK overlaps with the qualifying of the MotoGP in Spielberg and the Superpole Race on Sunday morning will take place at the same time as the Moto3 Grand Prix of Styria. There are also scheduling conflicts for the WorldSSP 600, which is the main reason that almost nothing is broadcast live on TV. An absolute disgrace for the sport and a slap in the face for fans, drivers, teams and sponsors of the near-series World Championship!

>WSBK Most Preview see separate report on this page.

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