Kenan Sofuoglu (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) looked on course for the race win in treacherously wet conditions at Magny Cours but an issue with visibility meant he fell while leading and was unable to restart. Roberto Rolfo (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) scored a podium in third place for Kawasaki.
After a dry practice and qualifying session for all riders the wet on raceday proved no problems for Sofuoglu for a long period of an eventually shortened race. A misting visor meant he had to keep adjusting it into and out of corners and this distraction eventually led to him losing the front under braking entering the hairpin.
The race was eventually red-flagged after an air fence barrier had deflated by a crashing machine, with only 12 laps completed. Full points were awarded to the top 15 riders as usual.
Having worked his way through the field third place man Rolfo finished just ahead of another rider but well behind the race winner on a day of risk for all and reward for some.
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Frenchman Florian Marino (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) took his Ninja ZX-6R to fifth place, two places up on Roberto Tamburini (San Carlo Puccetti Racing).
Patrick ‘PJ’ Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) slotted into eighth, just adrift of Tamburini. Rookie rider Mason Law (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) scored good points for 12th and Christian Gamarino (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) was 14th.
Alessandro Nocco (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) was one of three riders mixed up in a first corner incident and he was forced out of the race.
The next and final round is in Losail, Qatar, on November 2nd.
Kenan Sofuoglu: “The track was quite slippery but I found it quite easy to go faster than the other riders and make a gap. I was not pushing but I had some problems with my visor and I could not see anything after lap three. There was a very narrow line on the track that you have to use in the wet and I could not see it sometimes. I had to open my visor sometimes and when arriving in the braking areas I could not focus properly. The good point is that we were very fast in the wet today and in the dry yesterday but maybe this year it does not matter how much I fight maybe we are not going to have the luck to make a good result.”
via Kawasaki
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