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After making the leap from MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship competition to WorldSSP after the 2024 season, Philipp Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team) has earned his first WorldSSP podium since he departed the Championship after the 2021 season. The Motul Czech Round at Autodrom Most was good for the #65, earning first a P7 in Race 1, and later, earning a spot on the rostrum by finishing Race 2 in third place.

The German rider has enjoyed success in WorldSSP before; in his first stint competing in the 2021 and 2020 seasons, he earned 11 podiums. In what must have felt like a stroke of déjà vu for the 29-year-old, he enjoyed a third-place podium at Most back in 2021 as well; his second-to-last podium of the season in what was a successful 7-podium 5th-place finish in the Riders’ Championship

Race 2 featured Oettl starting in a second-row P6 start position and starting the race strong as he managed to stay clear of what can be a chaotic T1-T2 sequence with Most’s opening chicane. He briefly dropped to P7 before recovering up to P5 and engaging in a protracted battle with French rider Lucas Mahias (GMT94-YAMAHA). Oettl climbed as high as P2, behind only the streaking Can Oncu (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Team), who went on to win the race, and while Mahias was able to slip by Oettl, he finished in P3 ahead of his fellow German rider Marcel Schroetter (WRP Racing).

Discussing his return to the WorldSSP podium, Oettl said: “It was quite a good race, I had a good start despite a small mistake during the earlier stages of the race, in the chicane, but I recovered well. I was a little scared that I wasn’t going to be able to recover from that for a second, but it ended up being alright. I kept my head down, tried to focus on myself and my feeling, I knew that today we chose the harder SC1 tyre, and I think that was the correct choice. By the end, I could pass Manzi because he struggled a lot with the softer SC0 tyre. I’m really happy, it was a difficult time after Australia with the injury; now I feel a lot of pressure off my shoulders, and it feels like we’re moving forward in a good direction. The team is doing a great job helping me; it’s been a lot of work these past three months, but to be back on the podium is a gift, and it makes me feel like we’re moving in the right direction.”

Ahead of the Australian Round’s 2025 season opener, before the weekend’s races, the WorldSSP grid was on track, with an Official Test. The teams and their riders had a lot of ground to cover as poor weather conditions had limited the amount of dry track time for the teams to iron out wrinkles in their setup. Oettl was on track, trying to dial in his Ducati Panigale V2 setup when he crashed and suffered an injury to his left knee, and he was able to return in time for the next round at Portimao. Since his return, Most has been his most successful weekend, having earned his first podium of the season in Race 2, and tying his second-best result of the season in his Race 1 seventh-place.

On the step he’s made at Most, the German added: “It’s very important to me because it shows you that you’re moving in the right direction. The starts were good, the first laps were good, Superpole was a bit up and down, my confidence was not always there, but now it feels back. I hope we can keep it. At Misano, we have another test; we’re building our package step by step. I hope we can do a few more podiums. We want to confirm the step we took, with the bike, with my riding, and with my confidence.”

Can Oettl take a further step forward and earn a second podium at Misano? Catch the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round June 13-15th, tune in live or on demand with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!