It was a ninth podium of the season for 23-year-old Italian Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team), as he moved to just 10 points away from Randy Krummenacher in the championship race. Having taken nothing put first or second since Assen, Caricasulo has marched his way forwards and now, with sensational consistency, goes in search of capturing the championship lead in the final three rounds.

Off the line and it was a bright start from the Italian, as he held off a fast-starting Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing) and Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). Teammate Randy Krummenacher had slipped to fifth from his second place starting slot. Soon enough, Caricasulo tried edging clear but wasn’t successful in his bid to break the chasing pack.

After plenty of paint-swapping and trading blows, Caricasulo took the lead across the line with just a few laps left when a red flag came out for a technical problem with Raffaele De Rosa’s MV AGUSTA Reparto Corse machine. The win went to Caricasulo, ahead of Krummenacher and Mahias – the same top three as in Tissot Superpole.

“I am very happy about today, we’ve done a good race. For me, it would’ve been better if we win with the chequered flag and not the red flag, but it is OK. It was easier and I had more luck than in other times. We had pole position and we all worked very well, my team are very good and now, we will look at Magny-Cours to be back on top.”

With regards to whether or not he is feeling the heat from the championship battle, Caricasulo said: “I am not feeling the pressure as I am looking race by race to do my job in the best way. We will see, Portimao was good and now we look at the next one, and after that we will look ahead.”

The gap in the championship between leader Randy Krummenacher and Caricasulo was 22 points after Misano, with the last two rounds being the first of the season where Caricasulo has had the beating of his Swiss teammate on two consecutive occasions. Will he make it three at Magny-Cours, a track he took pole position at in 2018 and was second at in 2017?

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