GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team rider Federico Caricasulo secured his first race win of the season at Misano today, with a dominant performance in front of his home crowd. Lucas Mahias was left frustrated after contact with another rider saw him crash out of the race on only the second lap, while European Supersport Cup rider Alfonso Coppola also crashed on the same lap but remounted to finish 23rd.
Starting from pole position after dominating qualifying on Saturday, Caricasulo was forced to sit in behind Jules Cluzel for the opening three laps, after the Frenchman took the advantage from the start. Clearly the faster rider, Caricasulo made his move on lap three with a clean pass on Cluzel to take the race lead. Setting a fast and consistent pace at the front the Italian was never headed for the remainder of the race and crossed the line to claim his first win of the season and his first since the Jerez race in 2017. The win sees Caricasulo jump from sixth to fourth in the championship standings with 104 points, 12 points adrift of third-placed Randy Krummenacher.
A flying start from the second row of the grid saw Mahias make it into the leading trio by the end of the opening lap. The 29-year-old Frenchman was fighting for position with Raffaele de Rosa when a hard pass from the Italian at turn 10 resulted in contact between the two. Mahias was pushed wide and onto the dirty part of the track, where he crashed without injury. With no points secured today Mahias slipped one place in the championship standings from fourth to fifth.
Coppola's hopes of a back-to-back points scoring finish were dashed on lap two today, when he suffered a low side crash at turn two. Fortunately the 20-year-old Italian was able to remount and rejoin the race, gaining more valuable experience in his rookie WorldSSP season.
