Reigning champion Domi Aegerter denied Ducati its first World Supersport win since Imola in 2005 when he took victory in the opening race at San Juan.
Aegerter clawed back a 1.8s deficit to Raffaele de Rosa and passed him on the last lap to edge closer to a second world title in Argentina.
The Swiss had been running in third place throughout the second half of the race but was promoted to second place on Lap 17 of 19 when Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing) ran wide which cost the Italian rider a couple of seconds when he missed a gear. This allowed Aegerter to set his sights on De Rosa out in front and the reigning Champion duly did so as he closed the cap and put himself in position to use the slipstream down the long back straight.Aegerter made the move into Turn 8 as he utilised the slipstream, despite De Rosa initially pulling away under acceleration, and was able to extend his lead out to almost three tenths of a second at the end of the race. Aegerter claimed his 14th victory of the 2022 season, putting him level with Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) on 24 wins for his WorldSSP career, while De Rosa took second spot and his 19th WorldSSP podium. Caricasulo recovered from his mistake to take third place and the 24th of his WorldSSP career.
Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) battled back from a disappointing Tissot Superpole session to take fourth place and enhance his grip on third in the standings with the Turkish star gaining places consistently throughout the race. Finnish rider Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was fifth after an eventful race, finishing just over two seconds down on Oncu in fifth place. Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) was another who had an eventful race as he looked to extend his unbeaten run at San Juan but was only able to finish in sixth spot.
It was nearly rinse and repeat for Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) as he fought his way up the field as seen so often this season but he ran wide on Lap 8 and dropped down back the order to finish in seventh place. He was just a second behind Cluzel but only had a half-a-second margin to Yari Montella (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) in eighth place. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) finished ninth in his first WorldSSP race in Argentina, with the results of Race1 putting Baldassarri 63 points down on Aegerter in the standings. Hannes Soomer (Dynavolt Triumph) rounded out the top ten as he put late-race pressure on Baldassarri in the closing stages of the race.
Rookie Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) was 11th and around 1.5s down on the top ten as he finished outside the top ten for the first time in four races that he’s finished. Hungarian rider Peter Sebestyen (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) took 12th place ahead of Tom Booth-Amos (Motozoo Racing by Puccetti) on his first race with his new team, while it was also the team’s best result of the season.
Debutant Bradley Smith (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) was 14th on debut; Smith was penalised with a three-place grid drop following the Superpole session for slow riding. Oli Bayliss (BARNI Spark Racing Team) was the final points scorer as he took 15th place on his first visit to Argentina. Ondrej Vostatek (MS Racing Yamaha WorldSSP) was 16th while Patrick Hobelsberger (Kallio Racing) was the last of the classified riders in 17th.
