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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

1 Agosto 2020

Podium For Kawasaki In Spain

In a baking hot first Jerez WorldSSP race Philipp Öttl was third and his Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team-mate Lucas Mahias fourth in what was a strong restart to the season for the Italian based team.

This is Öttl’s first WorldSSP season and his top three finish came in only his second race in the class. He had qualified third in Superpole earlier today, taking a front row start in the process.
 
Mahias, who started from the front of the second row of the grid after qualifying fourth in Superpole, finished fourth after an early tussle that left him too far behind the leaders to get back into full contention.
 
Öttl made sure of his podium in the latter stages as the effects of the high ambient temperatures and the memory of some recent misfortune at the opening round combined to ensure he finished safely.
 
It was more of a dramatic early race for Mahias, who had to contend with another rider’s interventions in the early laps to make absolutely sure of his second points scoring ride of the season in fourth place.
 
With a shortened calendar in the WorldSSP class due to the cancellation of some rounds due to Covid-19 restrictions, there will be another race tomorrow, Sunday 2 August, before the championship heads to Portugal next weekend for two more races.
 
Philipp Öttl, stated: “I am very happy with my first WorldSSP podium. Manuel Puccetti gave me the opportunity to ride in this team and after one and a half difficult years before then it was a good sign that I can still ride a bike. At the first round in Phillip Island I had a good feeling with the bike and I thought I could be on the podium, but I threw it away. I thought today I could stay calm. I had a good start and immediately we were in front and the gap was already there. I said to myself to keep calm and do not throw it way again. The front was difficult in the race as we had 62°C on the asphalt. The heat was terrible but I am happy.”
 
Lucas Mahias, stated: “I lost a lot of time in the beginning of the race with a crazy rider, riding like it was still qualifying, in the first two or three laps. So I lost the group and the leaders and afterwards it was impossible to make it back up. I am not happy for sure because I have the pace to fight for the podium, but I lost a lot of time in the beginning. I had a nice fight in the last lap. Another race tomorrow, and we will try again. I think the bike set-up is OK.”
 
Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) eased out another young Kawasaki rider, Can Öncü (Turkish Puccetti Racing), for eighth place in what was only the second WorldSSP race of their careers.
 
   #NinjaSpirit