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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

12 Juni 2021

Öttl Sixth In Hot Misano Race One

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing’s Philipp Öttl rode confidently from his seventh place qualifying position to score sixth place in the first WorldSSP of the Misano weekend. His team-mate Can Öncü placed eighth in the race, from ninth on the grid.

The opening FIM Supersport World Championship race at Misano was conducted in ambient temperatures of almost 30°C, with the top placed Kawasaki rider proving to be Philipp Öttl.

Philipp had to concentrate hard in the early laps to allow for what he found was a changed feel in the balance of his machine but the overall feel came back stronger at the end and he was sixth across the finish line.

Can Öncü had almost the opposite experience from his team-mate, finding his best laps to be the early ones, but his eighth place finish was still a strong one for the young Turkish rising star of the WorldSSP class.

One more WorldSSP race at Estoril remains on Sunday 30 May, with both riders and their crews looking at optimising the set-up of their Ninja ZX-6Rs to suit what are expected to be even hotter conditions than what was an already scorching first race day.
 
Philipp Öttl, stated: “Towards the end of the race it was better but in the beginning I had a problem with the balance of the bike which made it not so easy to ride. Towards the end it was better again. Near the beginning I made a mistake where I lost contact to the front group. Then it was not easy to catch them back again. But, I think we learned quite a bit from today’s race and tomorrow we can do it a little bit better. Today sixth place was the best we could do. At the moment I really can’t say to the engineers where we have to improve but maybe we will try something in the warm-up. But it won’t be that hot at that time of day. I could not turn with the front the way I normally like to do it in Race One. Yesterday, in the long run, this was not the case.”

Can Öncü, stated: “I think the race was very good. The last laps were difficult but the first laps we did a really good job. We just need to work for tomorrow to improve what we can improve and also work on the middle to end of race pace a little bit more. Then hopefully we will be really, really much better.”

Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) was unfortunate to crash at Turn One in his first home race for two years. Leonardo Taccini (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was 15th at his home event and scored a point for the first time in 2021.

Michel Fabrizio (Motozoo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) entered the pits to retire and no score, while Shogo Kawasaki (Motozoo Puccetti Racing) crashed out at Turn 13.

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