Puccetti Kawasaki’s Philipp Öttl finished Friday on top of the Jerez WorldSSP times, beating title leader Dominique Aegerter, with a 1’42.249 morning lap.

Öttl taking a Kawasaki ZX-6R to the top of the timesheets in any session when Yamaha R6 riders generally dominate Supersport sessions would normally be the story of the day but it was another Kawasaki rider who stole the headlines for many.

Puccetti’s returning legend Kenan Sofuoglu may have only been riding for today, as a kind of wave goodbye to the current WorldSSP era that he so dominated, but midfield respectability in FP1 gave way to an overall seventh place at the end of Friday. Seventh.

Sofuoglu ‘races’ Toprak Razgatlioglu and all the other young Turkish stars that he helps train at his private track back home even now, but seventh was still more than even his team expected from what was mostly a PR stunt.

Sofuoglu was not much over 0.5 seconds from overnight leader Öttl, even at 37 years of age, on a bike built from bits of other bikes and spares.

“I had a lot of fun and I was pleased to see that many people were happy to see me back on track” Sofuoglu said on Friday evening. “I am genuinely amazed that I was so fast and my final seventh position, because I stopped racing over three years ago and have not been on a racing bike since.

“This morning I started calmly to find the feeling with the bike and the track, and in the afternoon I improved and I’m really satisfied. I want to thank the Puccetti team because it is always a pleasure to work with them. I love this team and without them I would not have returned to the track.”

Back to real racing for the World Championship in 2021, points leader Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) came back after his enforced MotoE absence last time out and took his R6 to second place, faster in FP2 than FP1.

Yamaha ParkinGo’s Manuel Gonzalez placed third on Friday in Spain, with Steven Odendaal (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) fourth.

A resurgent Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti) put his three cylinder F3 into fifth place.

Former World Champion Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing Yamaha) saved his blushes by finishing just in front of Sofuoglu, but two top Kawasaki riders, Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) and Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) were eighth and ninth fastest, with new WorldSSP rider Stefano Manzi (GMT94 Yamaha) rounding out the top 10.

Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) made a steady comeback from a heavy Magny Cours crash in 12th.

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