The title fight in the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship will go down to Jerez after a dramatic Tissot Aragon Round full of twists and turns. Inigo Iglesias (Fusport-RT Motorsports by SKM-Kawasaki) claimed victory in Race 1 as he slashed the deficit in the standings at MotorLand Aragon, and he was joined on the podium by Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki), while Aldi Mahendra (Team BrCorse) was second in Race 2 while his title rivals faltered.
Starting with Championship leader Mahendra, the Indonesian claimed fifth in Race 1 while his rivals were ahead of him. However, in Race 2, the tables turned. Mahendra battled his way from 11th on the grid to the podium spots to finish in second, although he narrowly missed out on victory. He was just 0.006s away from claiming the win, which was taken by Mirko Gennai (MTM Kawasaki) on the run to the line.
Looking back on his podium, and previewing the title decider at Jerez, Mahendra said: “This race was incredible for me. I started from 11th and tried to push but, at the beginning of the race, we had a red flag. I started again from 11th and I tried to push because I knew it was only seven laps. I tried to push and I got the second place, and so close to the win. For Jerez, I will take care and try to have a good race. I’ll try to get a podium for the Championship.”
Iglesias was the only one of the title contenders to take victory at Aragon with the Kawasaki rider winning Race 1. He was just 0.010s clear of Julio Garcia (KOVE Racing Team) in second, with Veneman third and half-a-tenth away from victory. Race 2 was a disaster for Iglesias though, with the #58 given a double Long Lap Penalty in the closing stages of the race for irresponsible riding, dropping him from the lead group into 18th place and allowing Mahendra a 20-point gain in the title fight.
Discussing his win, Iglesias said: “I wanted to come back to the podium after a few rounds with a little bit of bad luck. I’m back here. The race was crazy, like all the races in WorldSSP300. I tried to always be in the top positions, and I felt my teammate, Carter, helping me. He was with me fighting with the other guys. I needed to win here at my home round. I tried to push like hell on the last lap to try and get the victory.”
When asked about the title fight on Saturday in Spain, he said: “My first goal was to keep the Championship alive. I went for everything. I told my team before that we had to do everything to get that Championship. I think I deserve it. I’ll fight for the top positions on Sunday and then we’ll see at Jerez, a track that I like a lot.
Veneman showed his consistency at Aragon with third in Race 1, missing out on the win by 0.041s, and fifth in Race 2 despite some fierce fights. The Dutchman has scored points in all but one race this season as he looks to take the crown from fellow Dutchman Jeffrey Buis (Freudenberg KTM-PALIGO Racing), although the #7 will need results to go his way at Jerez.
Discussing his podium, Veneman said: “It was a pretty good race. My start was perfect so I could go into the first corner in first place. I could keep it like that almost for the whole first lap. In the end, I had a few problems with running wide or aggressive overtakes so sometimes I feel back and had to catch the group again. In the end, I still finished P3 and overtook Aldi around the outside of the last corner, so I was happy with that. I’m really happy with how the title fight is going. Unfortunately, Inigo won. I hoped he didn’t, and Julio won! These things happen.”
In a weird quirk, the top three are in reverse order in terms of wins in 2024. Mahendra is P1 in the standings with one win, Veneman is second with two and Iglesias third with three. Mahendra holds a 16-point lead over Veneman and 32 points over Iglesias, meaning he can win the title in Race 1 if he’s 25 or 26 points clear, depending on the number of wins in the event of a tiebreak.
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Source: WorldSBK.com