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Garcia discusses "amazing" Race 1 victory at Estoril, reveals strategy to beat Di Sora

Thursday, 26 May 2022 09:25 GMT

The pair were separated by just 0.041s at the end of the 12-lap race as the Spaniard won his first race at Estoril

The FIM Supersport 300 World Championship visited the Circuito Estoril for the Estoril Round and Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) re-claimed the Championship lead after taking a hard-fought Race 1 victory in Portugal with the 2017 Champion the only rider in 2022 to have won more than once. Garcia trailed his rival by eight points in the standings, but left Estoril 13 points clear after a challenging weekend for Alvaro Diaz (Arco Motor University Team).

Garcia claimed second spot on the grid in Superpole after posting a best time of 1’50.994s, 0.518s back from Yuta Okaya (MTM Kawasaki) after the Japanese rider smashed the all-time lap record for his second pole position in WorldSSP300. During Race 1, Garcia was able to maintain his position at the front of the field with the 2017 Champion not dropping outside of the top two at the end of any of the 12 laps.

In the closing stages, both Garcia and Samuel Di Sora (Leader Team Flembbo) were able to pull away from the chasing pack with French rider Di Sora actually leading come off the final corner. However, Garcia was able to utilise the slipstream on the long run down to the line to pass Di Sora and claim his second win of 2022 by just 0.041s. It was Yamaha’s first win at the Circuito Estoril, and it was also Garcia’s best result at the Portuguese venue.

Discussing the battle for Race 1 victory, Garcia said: “Today, it was amazing to win again. I think we had a good strategy with Samuel to not disturb him in the race and it was the key to win the race. It was good points for the Championship, and I will continue on this way. It was good. It’s difficult in this category. I need to go race by race and get good results and we will see what happens.”

The results from Estoril have provided a shift in the Championship standings with Garcia, who finished fifth in Race 2, now leading the standings ahead of Diaz after the Spanish rider scored only 10 points across both races. Di Sora went on to win Race 2 from 31st on the grid in a record-breaking race, meaning he claimed 45 points out of a possible from Estoril to move up to second in the standings.

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