The Swiss and the Italian went head-to-head again, with the reigning Champion eventually taking his 8th consecutive win.
Race 1 highlights – WorldSSP
P1 – Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha)
Aegerter claimed his eighth consecutive victory, now only one win away from Locatelli’s record of nine wins in a row.
He increased his Championship lead to 59 points over Baldassarri.
“The race was shortened, but it was an exciting 12 laps. We had a great battle with Bulega and Oncu. I was quite busy in the first laps, with lots of overtakes. Everybody wanted to be in front. It’s a shame that Bulega crashed. I think it would have been a great battle with him.”
“In the end, it was just Baldassarri and me and he had great a speed. It’s always good to be on the podium and to have finished the last eight races in first place. It takes a lot of work to achieve it.”
P2 – Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team)
Baldassarri was denied victory by Aegerter in the late stages of the race.
He remains second in the Championship standings with a 57-point advantage over Bulega in third.
“The race was great. Starting from 7th on the grid and having a short race, it was not easy for me. I had a great start, then great battles to recover some positions to put myself in first. I had a good rhythm and continue to push to do the same lap times as in the Superpole in hot conditions.”
“We made a great job today and I think that tomorrow we can make another step to try to beat Aegerter. The Ducati will also be there, Bulega’s acceleration impressed me today!”
P3– Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura WorldSSP)
De Rosa claimed his first podium of the 2022 season, his first one with Ducati in WorldSSP.
“I’m really happy. We worked well all weekend. The team deserved this podium because we changed everything from last year and they spent lot of energy in the new project. I think I have a good pace for tomorrow, but we’ll try to improve the bike for Race 2.”
Having missed the podium by 0.160s, Yari Montella (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) finished just outside the podium, followed by teammate Can Oncu in fifth. Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) completes the top six at his team home round.
To note:
The race was shortened twice – first with a delayed start and then after being red flagged after the first lap of racing following an incident for Peter Sebestyen (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) at Turn 4, with debris and his bike in the middle of the track. The incident also involved Unai Orradre (MS Racing Yamaha WorldSSP) who had nowhere to go, and clipped the back of Sebestyen’s bike, with Orradre coming off his bike at Turn 5.
Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team) was fighting for third place with De Rosa and Montella but he highsided out of Turn 10 on the final lap of the race.
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) had been fighting for the lead of the race on Lap 2 of 12 in the shortened encounter but lost the front of his Ducati machine at Turn 11 and crashed out of Race 1. He remains third in the standings, 116 points behind Aegerter.