Pata Honda’s Lorenzo Zanetti clinched his maiden World Supersport win in spectacular fashion, and on home soil in Imola. The Italian was able to take advantage of a technical problem to Mahi Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu and stormed on ahead to take the victory from his team-mate Michael Van Der Mark and championship challenger, Kawasaki Intermoto’s Florian Marino.
It was not a good race for DMC Panavto-Yamaha’s Kev Coghlan as he crashed while dicing for a top three place on only the third lap. He took a tumble, but was declared OK at the track side. He was unable to get back on his bike at Rivazza putting a huge dent to his championship ambitions.
Yakhnich’ Jules Cluzel had the best start on the opening lap and was able to out-pace local lad Zanetti going into the first corner, but on lap two Sofuoglu – who had to start from the second row because of a bike infringement, went into the lead getting the better of both leading riders at Variante Tamburello.
The triple champ tried to edge on ahead but Zanetti was not having any of it and kept close to the Turkish rider. His Dutch team-mate Michael Van Der Mark was in sixth, but overtook Kawasaki Intermoto’s PJ Jacobsen to go into the top five with 13 laps to go.
Cluzel made a mistake while in third at Tosa on lap six, allowing Kawasaki Intermoto’s Florian Marino to go into a provisional third place. But the former World Superbike rider re-joined in eighth. A lap later Van Der Mark made a move on Marino at Variante Alta to snatch third, leaving Marino to battle it out with his diminutive team-mate Jacobsen for fourth.
With nine laps remaining Sofuoglu had a one second lead from the Pata Honda’s of Zanetti and Van Der Mark. But four laps later the leader Sofuoglu had a technical issue and made his way back to the pits. With the Turkish rider out of contention it paved the way for Zanetti to go into first.
On the sixteenth lap the white flags came out as drops of rain fell on the Italian track, mostly at Tosa. On the penultimate lap Van Der Mark was creeping up on Zanetti and the gap between the team-mates came down to 1.9 seconds. But the local rider was uncatchable and finished the race in first followed by Van Der Mark, Marino and Jacobsen.
CIA Insurance Honda’s Jack Kennedy did not have the best of starts and was outside the top ten for all of the session. The Dubliner did finish inside the points in eleventh place. Com Plus Racing’s Fraser Roger had a solid race on track, and finished just ahead of the pole setter Cluzel in sixteenth - just missing out on a point.
