The FIM Supersport World Championship got underway at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto for the Motul Spanish Round with German rider Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) topping the timesheets by more than four tenths of a second after a storming late lap in Free Practice 1.

A late surge of laps meant Oettl briefly lost the top spot he made his own throughout the 45-minute session but was able to improve to a 1’42.249s to top the timesheets by 0.432s ahead of Spanish rider Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team) to strike first in Jerez as he looks to regain his form. Gonzalez finished in second place, a tenth ahead of Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti) in third as all three manufacturers were represented in the top three in the opening session of the day.

Catalunya Race 1 winner Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing) continued his strong form since his switch of teams with fourth place, finishing ahead of Championship leader Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) in fifth place, two tenths clear of his Swiss compatriot. Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) claimed sixth place, half-a-tenth behind Aegerter, with the top two in the Championship fifth and sixth after FP1.

Debutant Stefano Manzi (GMT94 Yamaha) claimed seventh place in his first appearance of the campaign, and in WorldSSP, as the lead GMT94 Yamaha rider while Federico Caricasulo (Biblion Iberica Yamaha Motoxracing) was in eighth place despite a Turn 6 crash in the latter stages of the session, ahead of Turkish star Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) who rounded out the top ten.

It was another strong showing for Marcel Brenner (VFT Racing) with 12^th on the opening day of action, just behind Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) while the returning Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was 18^th on his first run in WorldSSP for three years with the five-time Champion only taking part in Friday’s action. Leonardo Taccini’s (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) suffered a technical issue on his outlap for Free Practice 1, costing him valuable track time but he was able to re-join the session with around 20 minutes remaining as he finished in 34^th place.

The top six following WorldSSP FP1, full results here:

1 Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) 1’42.249s

2. Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team) +0.432s

3. Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti) +0.525s

4. Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing) +-0.583s

5. Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) +0.785s

6. Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) +0.813s

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