In the third round of the World Supersport championship, MV Agusta and French rider Jules Cluzel were back on the podium again. The poor start, which saw both riders of the MV Agusta Reparto Corse – Yakhnich Motorsport Team lose several positions, made the race a difficult, uphill challenge. While Jules Cluzel managed to disentangle himself and reach the group fighting for fourth place, Vladimir Leonov got boxed in, coming into direct contact with other riders numerous times. Nevertheless, the two riders fought like lions, and Jules managed to conquer a fantastic third place. He now lies 4th in the overall standings, just eight points behind the leader Florian Marino.
Jules Cluzel: “It was a very long, hard race. I didn’t get off to a good start and initially found myself fighting for 7th/8th place. I wasn’t at my best today, but was still convinced I could make it into the top four and, in the end, that’s exactly what happened. Zanetti put in a great performance, attacking all the time, but I managed to get past him and clinch fourth place: then Sofuoglu’s unexpected retirement gifted me a place on the podium. We need to keep on working hard to make our bike even more competitive at the next race”.
Vladimir Leonov: “I made a mistake at the start and lost several positions. I tried to claw back as many as possible, but it’s hard to fight back when you’re continually obstructed by close-quarters fighting in the midst of the bunch and can’t make full use of our bike’s outstanding speed. I was pushed off the track not once, but twice! At a certain point one of my rivals hit me as I was heading into a left-hand bend and damaged both the exhaust and my leather suit. Luckily, I managed to stay on the bike. It was tough, but I managed to recover and finish twelfth.
Superbike Race 1 unexpectedly took place on a dry track so the riders were able to battle it out under the best possible conditions. For much of the time Claudio Corti was straddling 16th place, but in the second half of the race he started closing the gap between him and the group in front and then managed to bridge it entirely. In the closing stages of the race the rider from Como was lapping about half a second faster than the three/four riders preceding him, but an early red flag meant he had to be content with 14th place. In Race 2, in the wet, Claudio was clearly demonstrating both his own racing talent and the excellent set-up of his F4 RR (from both a suspension and electronic viewpoint) as, lap after lap, he made his way up the field. Unluckily, when Claudio was in ninth place, the transponder caused him to fall. The lithium battery inside the transponder exploded so the latter stopped sending the control unit the signal indicating the bike’s passage over the finishing line; this put the entire electronic set-up out of phase and Corti suddenly found he had no traction control. Hence the inevitable fall.
Claudio Corti: “We were really unlucky! The morning race wasn’t easy. Our goal has always been to stay ahead of the EVOs. We’d almost reached them but, just as the opportunity for us to attack came, the race was interrupted. I reckon I could otherwise have gained at least three more positions. In the afternoon things got even more complicated as we have no racing experience in such tough weather. I started in 17th place, but still managed to climb back to 9th. We were in the top ten, ahead of the EVOs. Unfortunately we hadn’t reckoned with the compulsory transponder. Its internal lithium battery exploded so the transponder stopped working and failed to send the control unit the over-the-finish-line signal; this sent all the electronic set-ups haywire. I found myself cornering without traction control and that’s why I fell. I’m also really sorry for the team because they worked their hearts out this weekend.”