MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

A brief rain shower didn't spook anyone before the start of the race and warm weather let the eighteen lap race start dry.

Yari Montella once again took the lead as Adrian Huertas went wide into turn one with Stefano Manzi, Lucas Mahias and Valentin Debise bettering the championship leader. Luke Power, Tom Booth-Amos and Oli Bayliss all crashed out in their own crashes.

After oner lap, Montella's lead was just under a second and growing. Huertas took fourth place from Debise and set a fastest lap of 1'40.261 on lap two. Sixteenth placed Miquel Pons was awarded a double long lap penalty for a jump start.

Huertas made a decisive pass on Mahias in turn five but Mahias took the tight exit and took it back. Huertas made another pass into turn seven to take and hold third place.

Lap six of eighteen, Montella led Manzi by a second with Huertas a second further behind. Mahias was almost a second off the podium places with Debise and Federico Caricasulo behind, Debise taking fourth place from him round the lap. Pons's long lap was converted in to a ride through penalty after he ignored his long laps.

Yari Montella set a 1'40.117 on lap six and stretched out his lead.

At half race distance, nine of eighteen laps completed, Yari Montella led Stefano Manzi by under a second after Manzi closed the gap with a 1'40.063 fastest lap, a second and a half ahead of Adrian Huertas with Lucas Mahias and Valentin Debise duelling it out almost three seconds further back.

And then Yari Montella crashed very early at turn seven.

Stefano Manzi inherited the lead and he held second-placed Adrian Huertas from winning the title this race, with Huertas needing to win to claim the title today. With five laps remaining, Huertas needed to close by three or four tenths a lap but Manzi was lapping a few tenths quicker and set the gap at two seconds with four laps to go.

In the fight for the last step of the podium, Valentin Debise held off a determined Lucas Mahias, the French Yamaha riders separated by under a tenth of a second at the start of lap fifteen. Two seconds behind them, Sufuoglu's replacement rider Bo Bendsneyder led his fellow MV Agusta rider Federico Caricasulo in fifth place. Caricasulo made a mistake into turn one and gifted the Supersport newbie a second and a half.

Stefano Manzi opened the penultimate lap with a lead of two and a half seconds over Adrian Huertas, doing his best in spite of a second place from Huertas ending Manzi's mathematical title hopes. The top two spots were set, but Debise and Mahias were still racing for the podium through the last lap.

Stefano Manzi won the race but was eliminated from championship contention, in spite of his keeping the championship alive for another week. Two and a half seconds behind the win, Adrian Huertas took second place but not the title. The last podium place was taken by Valentin Debise who fought off Lucas Mahias to take third place by a quarter of a second.

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