MV Agusta Reparto Corse is competing in the eighth and final round of the 2020 Supersport world championship at the Estoril circuit in Portugal. Yesterday, the Italian riders took part in the first free practice sessions. Raffaele De Rosa proved to be at ease at this track, one he hadn’t ridden for more than ten years and with a different bike to his F3 675. With a time of 1’40”745, Raffaele scored first place overall, Federico Fuligni setting a time of 1’42”712 to finish eighteenth. This morning, the MV Agusta Reparto Corse riders were back at the Portuguese track for the final practice session, during which they worked to prepare for the Superpole and the first race of the weekend. De Rosa (1’40”825) finished fourth in the combined standings, Fuligni (1’43”356) twentieth. The eighth and final Superpole of the season once again saw De Rosa fighting at the sharp end. At the end of the session, Raffaele had set a best of 1’39”979 to score fourth place. Sixteenth for Fuligni with a time of 1’41”538. Thanks to these results, De Rosa lined up on the second row of the grid and Fuligni the sixth for the afternoon’s first race, which was almost immediately stopped, on lap four, due to a crash that saw a bike left on track. When the race was stopped, De Rosa was lying second, Fuligni eighteenth. The race was restarted but reduced to 12 laps. Raffaele got away well and was lying near the front but at turn 2 he came into contact with another rider and crashed, meaning that his race unfortunately ended in the run-off area. A real pity as De Rosa had proved, both in practice and the early stages of the race, that he could at least reach the podium. Fuligni was lying in around seventeenth place through the opening stages, but thanks to a strong pace he climbed up the field to cross the line in thirteenth place, earning useful championship points. He currently lies seventeenth in the standings, while De Rosa is now sixth, just four points from fifth. The MV Agusta Reparto Corse riders will take part in the fifteenth and final race of the Supersport world championship at Estoril tomorrow.
Autodromo di Estoril – Portogallo
Supersport world championship
Classifica cumulativa delle tre sessioni di prove libere: 1)Oettl (Kawasaki) – 2) Soomer (Yamaha) – 3) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 4) De Rosa (MV Agusta) – 5) Vinales (Yamaha) – 6) Gonzales (Kawasaki) …….. 20) Fuligni (MV Agusta)
Superpole: 1) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 2) Mahias (Kawasaki) – 3) Oettl (Kawasaki) – 4) De Rosa (MV Agusta) – 5) Webb (Yamaha) – 6) Vinales (Yamaha) …… 16) Fuligni (MV Agusta)
Gara 14: 1) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 2) Oettl (Kawasaki) – 3) Soomer (Yamaha) – 4) Vinales (Yamaha) – 5) Odendaal (Yamaha) 6) Oncu (Kawasaki) …………13) Fuligni (MV Agusta) . nc) De Rosa (MV Agusta)
Raffaele De Rosa: “The weekend was going well and after the first start I was running a good race but unfortunately it was stopped with the red flag. After the second start, I was already heading into turn 2 but Mahias was alongside me and we touched and crashed. I’m really sorry, both for myself and my team because we don’t deserve all this bad luck. We’ve worked well this weekend and have been fast. The practices and Superpole were positive, but then our luck changed in the race. I’m disappointed, also because I think we have the potential to score great results.”
Federico Fuligni: “We’ve improved a lot since yesterday and I had good feeling with the bike in the race. Maybe I could have scored a better result, but I battled in a group with many riders and couldn’t build an advantage that would allow me to break away from that group. I also lost time when one of the bike’s ahead of me was smoking and so I had to change my trajectory. We take these points and look ahead to tomorrow. With a good start, we can obtain a better result. Thanks to my team for their great work.”
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