Locatelli wins on World Supersport debut at P.I.

2020 World Supersport
Round One – Phillip Island

Wildcard Oli Bayliss had withdrawn from the event this morning after suffering engine issues yesterday.

Lucas Mahias got a great start off the line but Andrea Locatelli was the early race leader as the field streamed through turn one for the first time.

World Champion Randy Krummenacher didn’t stream through turn one though, he instead went hurtling off the track. His MV Agusta destroying itself while the Swiss rider walked away seemingly unhurt.

Due to problems with rear tyre longevity, a mandatory pit-stop had been enforced for the World Supersport race. All riders needed to stop between lap five and lap ten for new rubber to finish the 16-lap race distance.

By lap five Locatelli led De Rosa by more than 2.5-seconds. Mahias was third ahead of Cluzel and Perolari.

Oettl was riding well and challenging for fifth position before going down at turn two.

The first riders to pit were Raffaele De Rosa and Jules Cluzel.

Locatelli came in on lap nine with a six-second lead.

For safety reasons there was a minimum amount of time required for the rider to be stationary in the pits.  So riders do not rejoin the track with mechanics having to have rushed a change of tyre.  Riders have an indication of the time on their displays but still almost every rider left too early, and were then hit with time penalties. It all seemed somewhat farcical to be honest…

Locatelli though seemed to be one of the few riders not to have under-stayed his time in the pits and after all riders had stopped the 23-year-old Italian emerged with a four-second lead over De Rosa. By the last lap board Locatelli had stretched that gap back out to over six-seconds.

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The best of the rest was De Rosa and Cluzel with that pair enjoying a significant advantage over fourth placed Lucas Mahias, who was in-turn battling for position with Perolari throughout the final lap.

Locatelli the victor by 5.8-seconds over De Rosa who took second place ahead of Cluzel, while Perolari got the better of Mahias for fourth.

Andrea Locatelli P1

“It’s been an unbelievable weekend and one in which we haven’t made a single mistake, which was important for me. This track is a little bit different to others that we will race on and I may have pushed a little bit more this weekend because it is also one of my favourites. I’m happy because the whole team worked really well all weekend, we were faster in qualifying and took pole position and then we were faster in the race and took the win. It’s been so good. But now we need to keep focus and push at every race, especially at the one or two tracks that I haven’t raced at before.”

World Supersport Race Results

World Supersport Championship Standings