It was a welcome return to the FIM Supersport World Championship podium for Turkish rider Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) as he took third place in Race 1 and second in Race 2 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya during the Catalunya Round. Although the opening race of the weekend was red flagged and restarted, but reduced to 12 laps in distance, Race 2 went for the full 18 laps in Spain with Oncu matching his best WorldSSP result with second.

Oncu took second place in Saturday’s Tissot Superpole session which is his best grid position in WorldSSP, equaling his best from Assen earlier this season. This gave him a springboard to immediately fight for the lead in both races and he did so, running in the podium group throughout Race 1 as he finished in second place behind title contenders Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team).

In the 18-lap Race 2, Oncu led the opening lap before dropping to fourth a lap later and then recovering back up the order to lead by Lap 4. He crossed the line to lead until the tenth lap of the race when he was passed by Baldassarri but responded the following lap and stayed out in front for three more laps. Baldassarri got ahead again on Lap 11 for two laps before Oncu took the lead for the fourth time in the race. After that, Oncu remained in the podium positions as Baldassarri dropped to fourth and Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) fought for the podium. Although he crossed the line in third, Oncu was promoted to second when Manzi received a one-position penalty for exceeding track limits on the final lap.

Discussing the incredible fight in Race 2, Oncu said: “It’s just incredible because the first four laps, everybody was trying to avoid going into first position and stopping in the middle of the circuit and were going very slowly, to not spin the bike or hurt the tyres. After five, six laps I started to get bored, so I said ‘okay, I got a bit faster’ and everybody started to push more. We started to open a little bit of a gap to the second group, but I didn’t know this actually, I thought we were a big group of seven or eight. After the race, I learned that we opened the gap. I was always thinking we were so many people, so I was trying to push as much as possible. In the end, the race was so fun. I forgot to check the laps and everything. When I saw the board with two laps to go, I was like ‘really? Okay, no problem’. Normally when you see 18, 17, 16, it’s very boring because you are counting, but I forgot. It was really nice. I hope we continue like this in Portugal.”

After taking two podiums in the first two rounds of the season, Oncu often found himself inside the top five but off the rostrum until WorldSSP visited Barcelona. It is the first time Oncu has taken back-to-back podiums in the 2022 season and the first since San Juan in 2021, when he took third in Race 1 and second in Race 2. Oncu has not been on the podium at Portimao, where WorldSSP visits next, and he will be hoping he can end that run having hit form in Spain with two podiums.

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