Stefano Manzi (Pata Prometeon Ten Kate Racing) remains the only title contender to Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) in the FIM Supersport World Championship following his Race 2 victory at the Circuito Estoril. The pair are separated by 45 points after the Estoril Round with one round left, with Manzi keeping the title fight alive heading to Jerez by beating Huertas in Race 2 after Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) crashed from P1.
Manzi claimed third in Friday’s Tissot Superpole session, with running curtailed thanks to a mid-session downpour meaning there was no chance riders would improve their times. In Race 1, the #62 finished in third place to add to his podium tally for the season, finishing five seconds down on race winner Montella and four seconds away from Championship leader Huertas. Those results put him 50 points behind the #99, almost but not quite ruling him out of Championship contention.
In Sunday’s Race 2, Manzi was running in second behind Montella, and ahead of Huertas, when the Italian ahead crashed out at Turn 7. The crash ended Montella’s title hopes while promoting Manzi into first position. Although Huertas did briefly close the gap to the Yamaha rider, Manzi was able to open it up again to claim a third victory of the season and just keep his title hopes going to Jerez, although they’re very slim chances.
Discussing his Race 2 win, Manzi said: “Race 2 was super good, especially after Saturday which was a bit disappointing. We made quite a big step in Sunday’s Warm Up session, so I already felt really good with the bike. I thought something could happen in the race already in the morning. I started the race and was immediately into second place at Turn 1, but Yari had a very fast rhythm. In the end, he made a mistake, and he was out. When I saw that I had 1.5 seconds over Huertas, and saw the gap was going up a bit. In the end, it was super and quite happy to keep the Championship alive until the last round.”
Heading into Jerez, Huertas leads Manzi by 45 points, meaning the Spanish star will be crowned Champion if he scores five points over the weekend. The Italian would need to win both races and hope Huertas scores fewer than four points to pull off a remarkable comeback. While admitting he wasn’t close to the title, Manzi spoke about the fight.
He said: “I’ll just try to have the best weekend possible, as I said at Cremona to do the last three rounds like this. I’m not close but it’s still alive. We’ll try to have a weekend like this one, the best as possible.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com