Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) recorded his fifth FIM Supersport World Championship race win of the year as the three-time champion extended his championship lead at Jerez in Spain with a start-to-finish victory.
After positive machine development work in the summer break from his team, and hard physical preparation from the rider himself, Sofuoglu was ready to face 19-laps around the 4.423km Jerez circuit, particularly as he was starting from pole position.
With his main championship rival Jules Cluzel out through injury Kenan just had to make sure he finished ahead of Patrick Jacobsen to ensure he extended his championship lead.
At the mid-stage of the race Jacobsen threatened to close in on Kenan‰Ûªs advantage but upping his pace at a crucial point Sofuoglu widened his leading gap, easing up over the line to finish 1.037 seconds from Jacobsen. Lorenzo Zanetti was third.
‰ÛÏToday the tarmac was very warm but I knew this race was very important for me and I had to take maximum points." Sofuoglu said. "I knew I could not crash and I took the lead, according to my plan.
"I stayed with the group behind for around five laps, but after that my plan was to try and go away a little bit. l I knew we were very good on an used tyre. I made a bit of a gap around one second so when Jacobsen came a little bit closer I started to push again. With two seconds of a gap I just rode to maintain it and stay on the bike.
"We did a lot of work and at Jerez we were fast in every session. We are very happy and today we got the results for all the good work we did in the summer break.‰Û
