Cool Krummenacher stretches WorldSSP lead with last lap win

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Randy Krummenacher extended his lead in the World Supersport Championship standings after a cool and collected pass for victory just corners from the chequered flag denied team-mate Federico Caricasulo a famous home win.

A race of two halves for the Bardahl Evan Bros. pairing, Krummenacher initially headed up Caricasulo when he took the lead of the race on lap seven of 17, only for the Italian to grab the advantage on lap 13 with a masterful pass at Tosa.

However, in a reversal of fortunes compared with the last race at Assen – when Caricasulo passed Krummenacher late on to win - it was the Swiss rider who’d leave it late to strike for victory this time, getting the stronger exit from Variante Alta to scythe past on the final revolution.

The Italian would later point to technical issues for his sudden drop in pace, but the lost win means Krummenacher has increased his lead over Caricasulo in the standings to 22 points.

Marking back-to-back 1-2 results for the Bardahl team, their cause was aided by a dramatic coming together involving Jules Cluzel, Lucas Mahias and Thomas Gradinger whilst running a close-following third, fourth and fifth.

Cluzel led from the opening turns after getting a strong start from third on the grid, but slipped to third after getting it wrong into the Variante Alta on lap seven with the swap of positions allowing Mahias on the Kawasaki and Gradinger on the Kallio Yamaha to haul themselves into the lead fight too.

However, disaster struck on lap ten when Cluzel appeared to exit slowly from the final corner Bassa chicane, giving an accelerating Mahias no opportunity but to slam into the back of the Yamaha. Taking Mahias off his bike, Gradinger behind had nowhere to go but into the stricken ZX-6R, dropping him from his Yamaha as well.

With Cluzel also losing time as he slipped to the latter end of the top ten, the final podium spot instead went the way of the fortuitous Raffaele de Rosa, who secured his second rostrum of the season for MV Agusta in third.

Making up somewhat for Mahias’ disappointment, his Kawasaki team-mate Hikari Okubo secured his best-ever WorldSSP finish in fourth position, ahead of the experienced Ayrton Badovini. Okubo’s efforts also signal the best performance by a Japanese rider in WorldSSP since Katsuaki Fujiwara matched that result in Brno back in 2009.

Experienced wild-card Massimo Roccoli had looked on course for sixth – having run fourth early on – but a huge high-side on the exit of Rivazza on the final lap would ultimately bring a premature end to proceedings as he was stretchered off course.

His exit lifted former GP rider Isaac Vinales into sixth position at the close of play ahead the recovering Cluzel and Mahias, the French pair at least faring better than Gradinger – the innocent party in their triple clash – after the Austrian was forced to retire altogether.

Estonian Hannes Soomer claimed a ninth position from Hungary’s Peter Sebestyen, with Jules Danilo, Loris Cresson, Kyle Smith, Federico Fulgini and Maria Herrera completing the points.