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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

2 Augusztus 2020

Mahias Scores Race Two Podium

In a shortened 11-lap WorldSSP Sunday race at Jerez Lucas Mahias was third and his Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team-mate Philipp Öttl fourth after another hot race at the 4.423km long circuit in Andalusia. With Öttl third and Mahias fourth in the first race of the weekend yesterday, it was a strong overall Jerez weekend for the team.

The Sunday race was scheduled to be run over 17 laps but a collision between two riders into turn one put oil down and led to a long delay for track cleanup measures to be completed.

In the restart Philipp was in third place on lap one, with Lucas fifth. Frenchman Mahias started to move forward and pass other riders, including his own Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team-mate Öttl with six laps completed.

Without quite the same final lap pace as Mahias, Öttl remained in a confident fourth place, adding to his third place from Saturday. He is now fifth in the championship standings.

Closing in on eventual second place rider Jules Cluzel in the final few turns Mahias was not quite close enough to make a last corner attack certain, but still scored his first podium finish of the season to go third in the championship.

Race winner Andrea Locatelli now has 75 points, Cluzel 60, Mahias 42, Corentin Perolari 35 and Öttl 29.

The next round will take place next weekend at Portimao in Portugal, from 7 to 9 August, with two more points scoring races.

Lucas Mahias, stated: “For sure it is a nice result to take a podium today. Not the perfect race because I think if I had maybe three or four laps, more like a normal race, it may have been possible to finish second. But, I did not think it was the time to crash in the last corner of the last lap trying to pass. I kept this podium position which is nice for the team, and for me too in championship standings.”

Philipp Öttl, stated: “It was another good race and I am happy for the result. I wanted to have another podium but Mahias was really strong after six laps. The style of how you pass in WorldSSP seems to be a little bit different. It seems to be more of a block-pass style. The beginning of the race was good but afterwards we struggled a little bit. I am happy with the weekend because we did a good job again, so I need to say thank you to the team.”

Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) made a very strong start and was up to sixth place early in the race, until Mahias came past and he then slowed to finish tenth. Can Öncü (Turkish Puccetti Racing) was 12th.

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