Yamaha World Supersport rider Cal Crutchlow has taken his debut victory at Valencia this afternoon after a titanic battle with Stiggy Honda's Anthony West.
The former HM Plant man crossed the line just two-tenths of a second ahead of the Aussie ex-MotoGP man after taking the lead over the start/finish straight and putting a gap on West which was enough, even with a last-corner mistake, to take the win.
Crutchlow now shares the championship lead with Ten Kate Honda's Kenan Sofuoglu with Eugene Laverty in third and reigning World Champion Andrew Pitt fourth.
Laverty fought his way back from a lowly 18th place after a handful of laps into ninth place, taking Robbin Harms on the penultimate lap, putting in laptimes that were as fast as the leaders. He reeled in both Harms and Gianluca Vizziello at the rate of a second a lap.
There were some discussions between riders and FIM representative Claude Danis before the race began because there had been a light shower and the track was damp. Laverty and Pitt scythed their way down the order on the greasy tarmac before Laverty gathered himself and scrapped his way back up into the top ten.
Crutchlow and West were initially involved in a five-way dice with Joan Lascorz, Mathew Lagrive and Michele Pirro before the leading pair made a break with 11 laps to do.
Sofuoglu began to drop off the back of the pair as the track dried out, eventually finishing eight seconds back while early contender Lascorz went into the pits to change tyres. Pitt finished the race way down in 14th.
