2020 World Supersport
Round One – Phillip Island

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Wildcard Oli Bayliss had withdrawn from the event this morning after suffering engine issues yesterday.

Lucas Mahias got a great start off the line but Andrea Locatelli was the early race leader as the field streamed through turn one for the first time.

WorldSSP

World Champion Randy Krummenacher didn’t stream through turn one though, he instead went hurtling off the track. His MV Agusta destroying itself while the Swiss rider walked away seemingly unhurt.

Due to problems with rear tyre longevity, a mandatory pit-stop had been enforced for the World Supersport race. All riders needed to stop between lap five and lap ten for new rubber to finish the 16-lap race distance.

By lap five Locatelli led De Rosa by more than 2.5-seconds. Mahias was third ahead of Cluzel and Perolari.

Oettl was riding well and challenging for fifth position before going down at turn two.

The first riders to pit were Raffaele De Rosa and Jules Cluzel.

Locatelli came in on lap nine with a six-second lead.

Andrea Locatelli

For safety reasons there was a minimum amount of time required for the rider to be stationary in the pits.  So riders do not rejoin the track with mechanics having to have rushed a change of tyre.  Riders have an indication of the time on their displays but still almost every rider left too early, and were then hit with time penalties. It all seemed somewhat farcical to be honest…

Andrea Locatelli

Locatelli though seemed to be one of the few riders not to have under-stayed his time in the pits and after all riders had stopped the 23-year-old Italian emerged with a four-second lead over De Rosa. By the last lap board Locatelli had stretched that gap back out to over six-seconds.

The best of the rest was De Rosa and Cluzel with that pair enjoying a significant advantage over fourth placed Lucas Mahias, who was in-turn battling for position with Perolari throughout the final lap.

Andrea Locatelli

Locatelli the victor by 5.8-seconds over De Rosa who took second place ahead of Cluzel, while Perolari got the better of Mahias for fourth.

Andrea Locatelli P1

“It’s been an unbelievable weekend and one in which we haven’t made a single mistake, which was important for me. This track is a little bit different to others that we will race on and I may have pushed a little bit more this weekend because it is also one of my favourites. I’m happy because the whole team worked really well all weekend, we were faster in qualifying and took pole position and then we were faster in the race and took the win. It’s been so good. But now we need to keep focus and push at every race, especially at the one or two tracks that I haven’t raced at before.”

Andrea Locatelli

World Supersport Race Results

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap	Speed
1	A.  Locatelli	YZF R6	/	279,8
2	R.  De Rosa	F3 675	+5.817	282,0
3	J.   Cluzel	YZF R6	+6.780	284,2
4	C.  Perolari	YZF R6	+11.372	286,5
5	L.   Mahias	ZX-6R	+11.423	285,0
6	H.  Soomer	YZF R6	+15.520	282,7
7	S.  Odendaal	YZF R6	+18.697	281,3
8	M. Gonzalez	ZX-6R	+20.826	289,5
9	F.   Fuligni	F3 675	+21.823	288,0
10	I.    Viñales	YZF R6	+23.381	285,0
11	C.  Öncü	ZX-6R	+25.217	284,2
12	D.  Webb	YZF R6	+31.700	286,5
13	P.   Hobelsberger	CBR600RR	+38.205	282,7
14	P.   Sebestyen	YZF R6	+41.523	279,8
15	A.  Verdoïa	YZF R6	+46.929	281,3
16	J.   Van Sikkelerus	YZF R6	+1:02.683	278,4
17	L.   Cresson	YZF R6	+1:14.262	281,3
18	G.  Hendra Pratama	YZF R6	+1:32.084	279,1
Not Classified
RET	C.  Bergman	YZF R6	9 Laps	282,0
RET	P.   Oettl	ZX-6R	10 Laps	285,7
RET	H.  Okubo	CBR600RR	13 Laps	281,3
RET	R.  Krummenacher	F3 675	/	/

World Supersport Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Total	Pole
1	Andrea Locatelli	25	1
2	Raffaele De Rosa	20
3	Jules Cluzel	16
4	Corentin Perolari	13
5	Lucas Mahias	11
6	Hannes Soomer	10
7	Steven Odendaal	9
8	Manuel Gonzalez	8
9	Federico Fuligni	7
10	Isaac Viñales	6
11	Can Alexander Öncü	5
12	Danny Webb	4
13	Patrick Hobelsberger	3
14	Peter Sebestyen	2
15	Andy Verdoïa	1

Source: MCNews.com.au