The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosts the eighth round of the 2021 FIM Supersport World Championship campaign and with the Championship leader Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) not in attendance due to MotoE™ World Cup duties, the door is wide open for the opposition. After Free Practice one at the Catalan venue, it was Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who topped the session. There was a Red Flag with just under seven and a half minutes to go for an incident at Turn 2, when Marc Alcoba (Yamaha MS Racing) crashed before Ondrej Vostatek (IXS-YART Yamaha) followed him in. Both riders were OK and the session resumed after a pause.

Leading the way by grabbing the advantage at the close of the session, Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), was in fine form as he placed Kawasaki on top. Heading into the closing stages after the Red Flag period, Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing) was second as he replaces the injured Luca Bernardi this weekend. Italy’s Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was in third place as he was back towards the front, whilst Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGO Team), who won last time out at Magny-Cours, started his Barcelona weekend in fine form with fourth place. One rider moving his momentum from Magny-Cours to Montmelo is Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), with the Turkish rider completing the top five.

Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) elevated himself up the order by taking sixth place having been outside the top ten for part of the session, whilst making it three manufacturers inside the top seven was Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti), with the Finnish rider continuing his form from France. Andy Verdoïa (GMT94 Yamaha) was up in eighth place, with Federico Caricasulo (Biblion Iberica Yamaha Motoxracing) next up in ninth. Completing the top ten was Sweden’s Christoffer Bergman (Wojcik Racing Team), as he came back into the top ten. Top WorldSSP Challenge rider was Kevin Manfredi (Altogo Racing Team) in 11^th, whilst Dominique Aegerter’s replacement Simon Jespersen was 27^th.

Top six after FP1 in WorldSSP, full results here:

1. Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) 1’45.898s

2. Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing) +0.047s

3. Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) +0.052s

4. Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team) +0.097s

5. Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) +0.164s

6. Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Tram) +0.465s

FP2 for World Supersport starts at 16:00 local time (GMT+2) so make sure you don’t miss out with the WorldSBK VideoPass, now at 50% off!