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Can Öncü had a ‘game of two halves’ at Most. The Kawasaki Puccetti rider landed himself in hot water with the officials on Saturday in Race 1, when a speculative and ultimately ill-judged passing attempt into Turn 1 on the run down from the race start resulted in him hitting Raffaeli De Rosa (Orelac Racing Verdnatura WorldSSP).

 

This in turn started a chain reaction that saw five riders – De Rosa, Andy Verdoia (GMT94 Yamaha), Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing), Yari Montella (Puccetti Kawasaki Racing – Can’s teammate) and most significantly championship leader Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), all crash out in the ensuing chaos.

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While he was able to continue, Öncü was given a ride-through penalty for ‘Irresponsible riding’ and causing the incident, which effectively ended his race with him dropping right down the order. He ended the race in a lowly 21st.

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Bahattin Sofuoğlu, the other half of the Turkish WSS contingent, was enjoying a much better time on his MV Agusta F3 800 RR. He navigated through the first corner melee and finished the first lap in third. The more experienced and established runners did make their way past him shortly after, but by mid-race distance the No.54 settled into a rhythm and was running nicely inside the top ten. 

 

Significantly, he got his head down on the last lap and pipped fellow rookie and reigning World Supersport 300 Champion Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki) for seventh place, and more impressively finishing less than three seconds behind Stefano Manzi (Dynovault Triumph) who claimed second place.

 

Reeling from his punishment from Saturday, Can re-grouped well in Race 2 and despite starting from 12th place on the grid, he was soon fighting for third within just a few laps. It was a position he would hold onto in what was a mostly lonely race, but heading into the closing stages Manzi snatched the last rostrum spot just before the red flags came out.

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If anything, the shortened race may have been a blessing in disguise for Can, because his hard-charging compatriot Bahattin was hot on his heels and took a career-best fifth in the class, less than a second behind the Puccetti Kawasaki!

 

He too started from the fourth row and had to battle his way through the pack, yet his pace gradually improved as the race wore on and he managed to set one of the fastest laps of the race on the penultimate lap before proceedings were brought to a premature end by the introduction of the red flags.

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This means Bahattin now leads the World Supersport Challenge with 36 points, over second-placed Marcel Brenner (VFT Racing) who sits on 23 points after the Most round.

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Baldassarri did the double and has closed right back on Championship leader Aegerter who was given a one race ban due to his antics in Race 1, where he tried to simulate more serious injuries than what he actually had having been involved in the aforementioned five-rider pile-up in Turn 1.

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For full race results please visit the WorldSBK/WorldWSS Results page: