Yari Montella achieved his best result so far, Can Oncu just missed out on the podium, but Lucas Mahias crashed a sustained an injury in the Superpole race.

Friday

Lucas Mahias in the top ten for WorldSBK free practice

The third round of the Superbike World Championship is now underway at the Estoril circuit in Portugal. After scoring encouraging results at the previous Assen round, Manuel Puccetti’s team and rider Lucas Mahias are taking on this weekend with the intention of confirming the constant progress made by both the rider and the Ninja ZX-10RR.
In hot but cloudy conditions, Mahias completed the day’s two free practice sessions. The Frenchman rounded out the morning session in twelfth position with a best of 1’38”044. In the afternoon’s FP2, Lucas made significant improvement, lowering his time by more than four tenths to set a 1’37”467, which saw him place tenth overall in the day’s combined standings.
Tomorrow Mahias will take part in the third free practice, followed by Superpole and the first race making up this third WorldSBK round.

Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Bautista (Ducati) – 3) Gerloff (Yamaha) – 4) Rea (Kawasaki) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) ……. 10) Mahias (Kawasaki)

Lucas Mahias

“This first day at Estoril has gone quite well. My feeling with the bike has been good and I’m pleased with both my position and the pace I was able to maintain throughout both sessions. We also carried out a race simulation, in which the bike proved competitive with a good set-up. There are a few sectors where we can improve, but overall I’m pleased and think we are ready for Superpole and tomorrow’s race. A big thank you to my team for all their hard work.”

Can Oncu and Yari Montella put the work in at WorldSSP practice

The Estoril circuit is hosting the third round of the Supersport World Championship this weekend. Both Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders headed out on track today with the intention of improving on their previous performances and confirm their status as top riders in the category. Can Oncu is aiming for victory, having scored two third-place finishes to date, while Yari Montella wants to continue to move in on the frontrunners in what is his debut WorldSSP season. In the first free practice session, the Turkish rider stopped the clock on 1’40”963 to finish in fifth place, followed by his team-mate who, despite never having ridden at this track, was able to set a best of 1’41”201.
The afternoon’s second session was less positive for Oncu, who did not improve on his earlier time and rounded out day one in ninth place with a time of 1’41”061. Montella improved slightly on his best lap (1’41”167), finishing in eleventh place overall.
Tomorrow the two Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders will take part in the Superpole followed, a few hours later, by the weekend’s first race.

Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Supersport World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Baldassarri (Yamaha) – 3) Cluzel (Yamaha) – 4) Verdoia (Yamaha) – 5) Van Straalen (Yamaha) ……….. 9) Oncu (Kawasaki) – 10) Manzi (Triumph) – 11) Montella (Kawasaki)

Can Oncu

“I’m fairly satisfied with my practice sessions today. After a break of more than a month, I’ve got back on my Ninja and there’s immediately good feeling. We had a few difficulties but we’ll surely be able to resolve those for tomorrow and so I’m feeling optimistic. I can’t wait for tomorrow when we’ll be out for Superpole. Thanks to the team for all their help today.”

Yari Montella

“The first session went well. In the afternoon, we tried a few solutions that we thought could give us a little extra, but unfortunately they didn’t work out and so tomorrow we’ll go back to the set-up we used in FP1. Overall, I’m pleased with the two sessions, also because we’d never ridden at this track. I’m feeling increasingly comfortable on the bike and am getting on really well with the team.”

Saturday

Electronic problems for Lucas in WorldSBK race

The second day making up round three of the Superbike World Championship played out today at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, with Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Lucas Mahias taking part in the final free practice, in Superpole and race 1.
Yesterday, the Frenchman finished the first two practices in tenth place, with a best time of 1’37”467, while this morning, in dry but cloudy conditions, Mahias set a 1’38”069, which saw him place twelfth in the combined standings.
In Superpole Lucas put in a very strong performance. Improving considerably on his previous best time (1’36”674), the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider rounded out the session in tenth place. This meant that he lined up on the fourth row of the grid for the afternoon’s 21-lap race.
But it proved to be an unlucky one for the Frenchman, who was conditioned by some electronic problems right from the start. This meant that Lucas was unable to ride as he would have liked or exploit the potential of his Ninja. Mahias did well to complete the race anyway, crossing the line in seventeenth place.
Tomorrow morning will see Mahias take part in the Superpole race and the second and final race making up this third WorldSBK round.

Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Bautista (Ducati) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Gerloff (Yamaha) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) ……….. 12) Mahias (Kawasaki

Superpole: 1) Rea (Kawasaki) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Bautista (Ducati) – 4) Redding (BMW) – 5) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 6) Rinaldi (Ducati) ……. 10) Mahias (Kawasaki)

Race 1: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 5) Vierge (Honda) – 6) Lecuona (Honda).…. 17) Mahias (Kawasaki)

Lucas Mahias

“Today’s race was a real disaster. Right from the start, I had issues with the electronics and it was all I could do to finish the race, trying not to make mistakes as I had no traction and risked losing grip at the front on several occasions. I’m really disappointed, not only about eh result which definitely doesn’t reflect our potential, but also because the practices and qualifying went really well and we could have run a great race. Now we’ll try to solve these problems and make up for today in tomorrow’s races”.

Oncu just misses the podium at Estoril, while Montella scores his best result of the season

The sun that shone down on the Estoril track yesterday gave way to clouds today, although temperatures remained fairly high. In yesterday’s WorldSSP free practices, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders Can Oncu and Yari Montella worked together with their technicians in preparation for the Superpole and the weekend’s two races.
Oncu (1’40”963) finished in ninth place, followed by Montella (1’41”167), eleventh-
The third Superpole of the season got underway in the late morning. The young Turkisj rider improved on his best time (1’40”453) to finish eighth. The Italian also lowered his lap time (1’40”694) to move into twelfth position. With these results, Oncu started from the third row of the grid and Montella from the fourth for the afternoon’s 18-lap race.
Oncu made a very fast start which allowed him to move into the leading group and take the lead by the end of lap one. Can held first place until lap seven, when he dropped to second, still in the mix for the win. In the final stages, the Turk lost ground and ultimately crossed the line fourth, just missing out on a podium finish by a fraction of a second. Montella ran a solid race as he continued to climb up the field before crossing the line sixth, the Italian’s best result of the season so far. Yari could have done even better if a drop in tyre performance hadn’t penalised him through the final laps.
In the championship standings, Oncu places fifth with 45 points while Montella is ninth with 30. Tomorrow, the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders will be back out for the second and final race making up this Portuguese event.

Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Supersport World Championship
Superpole: 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Bulega (Ducati) – 3) Van Straalen (Yamaha) – 4) Baldassarri (Yamaha) – 5) Cluzel (Yamaha) ……. 8) Oncu (Kawasaki) …….. 12) Montella (Kawasaki)

Race 1 – 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Baldassarri (Yamaha) – 3) Bulega (Ducati) – 4) Oncu (Kawasaki) – 5) Caricasulo (Ducati) – 6) Montella (Kawasaki)

Can Oncu

“I pushed to the max right from the start because I wanted to win. I moved into the lead but from about mid-race on, I started to lose ground and missed out on the podium by just a fraction. I’m sorry about the result but pleased because we have once again shown that we can run up front and battle for the win. A big thanks to my whole team.”

Yari Montella

“Once again today we had confirmation that we’re continuing to improve. We can now be quick right from the initial stages and need to learn to manage our potential all the way to the line. I’m quite pleased with my result today, which could have been better without the drop in tyre performance which affected me over the last laps. A good sixth place finish that I am nevertheless taking as a starting point and not an end point. I want to thank the entire team as they’ve worked really hard today.”

Sunday

Mahias crashes and sustains injury in the Estoril Superpole Race

With today’s Superpole Race and second Superbike race, round three of the Superbike World Championship has concluded at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal.
Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Lucas Mahias finished tenth in yesterday’s Superpole before being forced to settle for seventeenth in race 1, due to some electronics-related issues with his Ninja.
This morning, the Frenchman was back on track for the Superpole Race, which runs over just ten laps. Unfortunately, during the course of lap one, Lucas was hit by another rider and crashed, fracturing the fifth metacarpal of his right hand in the process. An injury that of course prevented him from competing in Race 2.
In the coming days, Mahias will undergo further tests to have a better understanding of the necessary recovery time.
The next Superbike World Championship round is scheduled to take place over the weekend of 10-12 June at the Misano World Circuit in Italy.

Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Superbike World Championship
Superpole race: 1) Rea (Kawasaki) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Bautista (Ducati) – 4) Lecuona (Honda) – 5) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 6) Lowes (Kawasaki) ……. nc) Mahias (Kawasaki)

Lucas Mahias

“I definitely haven’t been lucky here in Portugal. Yesterday I had an electronic problem that conditioned my race, and today I crashed straight away on lap one, when another rider collided with me. Unfortunately, I’ve fractured the fifth metacarpal on my right hand and so I couldn’t line up for Race 2. I’ll get some more tests over the next days so that we can understand when I’ll be able to race again.”

Montella fourth and Oncu fifth at the end of a thrilling race

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing has today concluded the third round of the Supersport World Championship at the Estoril Circuit. Manuel Puccetti’s riders, Turk Can Oncu and Italian Yari Montella completed yesterday’s Superpole in eighth and twelfth place respectively, before Oncu finished the first of the weekend’s races in fourth place, just missing the podium, and Montella sixth.
Today’s race git underway on a damp track with rain falling intermittently. Both Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders put in a strong performance. Oncu remained part of the leading group, in which the riders continued to exchange positions, even leading the race for six laps. Only in the final stages, due to a less than ideal tyre choice, did the young Turk have to slow his pace, crossing the line in fifth place. A good result that did not really reflect his efforts.
Montella ran an exceptional race. After making a good start, Yari found himself in the chasing group before he started to close in on the frontrunners and battle with them for the podium right until the end. The Italian just missed out on the third step of the rostrum, by one tenth of a second, in the charge to the line.
In the championship standings, Oncu lies fifth with 56 points, while Montella follows him in sixth place with 43.
The next round of the Supersport World Championship will take place at the Misano World Circuit in Italy from 10 to 12 June.

Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Supersport World Championship
Race 2: 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Smith (Yamaha) – 3) Baldassarri (Yamaha) – 4) Montella (Kawasaki) – 5) Oncu (Kawasaki) – 6) Bayliss (Ducati)

Can Oncu

“It was a difficult race and we chose the wrong tyres, so we made a small mistake. Apart from this I think we did a really good job and today was very positive for us. We are fast and everybody can see it. This weekend was not the best weekend maybe but I know that I will be much faster in Misano.”

Yari Montella

“I’m really pleased with fourth place today. I did all I could to reach the podium in the final stages, but I just missed out on it. This result reflects all the hard work I’m doing with the team and, with their help, I’m adapting to the bike and learning to exploit its full potential. Now we have to look ahead and prepare for my home round of Misano”.