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As the battle for the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship intensifies, Alfonso Coppola (SK Racing) was thrilled to take second position at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, and as a result he was able to step into the championship lead heading into the penultimate round of the season.

The young Italian stormed through SP1 and SP2 to take pole position around the 4.5km circuit, and he was feeling comfortable on his Yamaha YZF-R3. However a slow start off the line left himself with a lot of work to do in the 11 lap race, and he found himself in the mid pack in the opening laps. Showing his gnarly determination, Coppola was able to fight through the tough the tough field and was up at the sharp end in the closing laps.

As the podium fight went down to the final laps, the 20 year old was able to narrowly take second position, just 0.053s behind race winner Ana Carrasco (ETG Racing). Leading the title fight by just one point, there is everything to play for as the battle goes to Magny-Cours, but he instists he will take the fight race by race.

"In this moment, I am very happy,” beamed Coppola. “I had a tricky start and that made it a lot harder for me. It was tough to try and close the gap to the leading group, but I got my head down and on the last lap I decided to try and follow Ana Carrasco out of the last corner as she was so quick and I managed to pass Garcia before the line, which means I now lead the championship! I am already looking forward to the next round at Magny-Cours, and hopefully, I can win the title at the final round in Jerez. I want to thank my team and Yamaha for all their hard work this weekend, plus I also want to say thanks to the fans. I will work hard in the gym training, and get myself as ready for Magny-Cours!"

Relive the historic WorldSSP300 race around Portimao all with the WorldSBK VideoPass, and prepare for the penultimate round of the season in just under two weeks time, from 29^th September – 1^st October.