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WSS, Donington, UK, 29 Mai 2016

Sofuoglu Wins Again As Krummenacher Takes Third Place

The seventh race of the FIM Supersport World Championship season was won by championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), after 20 front-running laps of the 4.023km Donington circuit. Kenan’s team-mate Randy Krummenacher moved up from fifth in qualifying to third place in the race, his third podium in what is his first ever WorldSSP season.

Starting from pole position Sofuoglu had PJ Jacobsen pass in front of him as he entered the first corner but he soon got by his American rival and led across the start/finish line every lap from then on.
 
Kenan’s pace eased off in the final part of the race, allowing the advancing Jacobsen to draw closer for a time. Despite a well-used rear tyre Kenan upped his pace at the vital time and held on for a clear margin of victory of 1.569 seconds. This was Kenan’s third race win of the year.
 
In his first ride at Donington Park for some years, and his first on a Supersport machine at the English venue, Krummenacher found most of the pace he had just missed out on in qualifying. He ended raceday in third place, just 3.775 seconds from his team-mate Sofuoglu.
 
In the championship itself Sofuoglu extended his lead to 26 points over Krummenacher, with Kenan now on 121 points and Randy on 95. Randy is 19 points ahead of overall third place rider PJ Jacobsen, who was second in the Donington race today. Kawasaki leads the Manufacturers’ Standings by 25 points.
 
The next round will take place at Misano in Italy, with raceday on June 19th.
 
Kenan Sofuoglu stated: “Today was a good day and everything worked very well, except for the cooler conditions. I immediately took the lead because PJ was slow in font of me. I passed him and tried to pull a gap and the plan worked very well. With the last five or six laps to go I started to slow down a little bit because the left side of the tyre was worn. I saw that PJ was coming closer so I started to push again and it worked out well. I am very happy to win again. I think PJ had less of a problem than me with the tyres because he was spinning a lot and when you spin you heat the tyre. My riding style is too smooth to heat the tyre but I am very happy because we took a Superpole win, a winning race and 25 points. You cannot ask for more so a big thanks to my Puccetti team as they did a really great job without any mistakes and we won.”
 
Randy Krummenacher stated: “I am happy to be back on the podium because the last time was in Motorland Aragon, which feels like a long time ago. It was good to be back up there after Imola and Malaysia which were not that good, and so I can be really pleased with a third place. At the end of the race I missed a step to find Kenan and he was really strong, especially at the beginning of the race. I was pushing hard and at the end I also tried to stay with PJ and attack him but he was so strong at the end. I said, ‘Ok, let’s take the third and bring it home.’ This is a good result and I have more confidence for Misano. I know this track in Italy a bit better. Here, I have to say my riding is not at its best. Some racing lines I could do better but I gave my best. On other tracks I can be faster.”
 
The next best Kawasaki riders were both part time ESS riders, who only race at the European-based rounds. Alessandro Zaccone (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) was 12th while Illia Mikhalchik (DS Junior Team Kawasaki) was 13th. Another ESS rider, Axel Bassani (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki), was 17th, just out of the points.