Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) is closing in on FIM Supersport World Championship history after he made it six wins in a row following his double at the Autodrom Most. It means the #99 has extended his Championship lead over Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) as he tightens his grip on P1 in the standings at the halfway point of the 2024 campaign.
Montella beat the Championship leader to pole position in Friday’s Tissot Superpole session, with 0.155s separating the pair. However, in Race 1 and Race 2, it was Huertas who came out victorious. In Saturday’s race, the #99 finished ahead of Stefano Manzi (Pata Prometeon Ten Kate Racing) and Valentin Debise (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) to claim the 25 points, with Montella having to settle for fourth.
Speaking about Race 1, Huertas said: “It was a positive race for me. At the beginning, I needed to battle. I knew my points for taking advantage and then pushing. It was important to make a gap and then start to increase it step by step, but without making mistakes. We got really important information for Race 2 about the long distance. I think we can make more steps to improve. At the beginning of the season, not me nor the team, nobody, was expecting this. It was my first year on this brand, so the bike is new. It was important for me to win today.”
In Sunday’s race, it was a similar story, with Huertas finishing almost three seconds clear of Manzi in second while the battle for third was between Montella and Debise. French rider Debise had crossed the line ahead of the #55, but a one-place penalty for cutting the Turn 1-2 chicane dropped him to fourth and promoted Montella to the podium. Huertas’ win made it six-in-a-row, putting him only three off the all-time record held jointly by Andrea Locatelli and Dominique Aegerter.
Discussing the Race 2 victory, Huertas said: “It was incredible. We had an amazing pace. The temperatures were really high and even with this, we managed to be fighting at the front. We managed the tyres really well and I was able to push until the end. I made a consistent pace until the end, while pushing, because like this I kept my concentration, and I had less problems. I’m really happy about that and how we’re growing. The limit will be when I don’t win again! I’m really happy and want to continue like this. This is a good way, and we were able to recover a lot of points from Australia. This is good because in Australia, we were quite unhappy about how it went.”
The results from Most mean Huertas leads the Championship standings by almost a round’s worth of points. He’s 46 points clear of Montella in second, while the Barni Ducati rider is only seven points ahead of Manzi in third. Debise’s strong form in recent rounds has helped move him into fourth place, ahead of Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) in fifth.
Watch every moment from WorldSSP in 2024 in style using the WorldSBK VideoPass – now 50% off!
Source: WorldSBK.com