The FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship has seen a new name honoured on the podium, as the Championship’s closing race featured Muklada Sarapuech (EEST NJT Racing Team) completing a decisive run to the line and claimingboth her maiden WorldWCR podium and Thailand's first podium in the Championship. With the paddock’s first weekend in Italy done and dusted, few will have more pleasant memories than Sarapuech from the venerated Misano World Circuit "Marco Simoncelli".
Since Round 2 of the WorldWCR season at Portimao, Sarapuech hasn’t missed the top ten, three times finishing P5 before a P4 to close Balaton Park hinted at a step for the rookie WorldWCR rider. Misano confirmed that, as she rode with a pace strong enough to fight for a podium place in both races. Sarapuech ran in P4 as she rode in a four-rider battle fighting for P3, inheriting third place after Karolina Danak (Yamaha AD78 FIMLA) ran wide at the final corner, crossing the line in P3. Unfortunately for the Thai rider, however, Sarapuech was given a three-second penalty by the FIM WorldSBK Stewards for a yellow flag infringement, as she had overtaken a rider earlier in the lap while the yellow flag was out for Line Vieillard (FT Racing Academy), who had crashed at Turn 14 on the previous lap.
As such, Race 2 saw the Thai rider set off from P6 with renewed determination. She and Yvonne Cerpa (MotosCerpa-Gradara Corse), Paola Ramos (Klint Racing Team) and Ramos’s teammate Roberta Ponziani (Klint Racing Team) fought tooth and nail for P4 until the #12 fell as far back as P6 by Lap 7 of the 12-lap race. A tremendous Lap 8 saw the Thai rider send herself right back into the thick of the fight, overtaking the tightly-packed trio across the second and third sectors of Lap 8 to sit in P3. She kept it clean across the final five laps and crossed the line penalty-free for both her and her native Thailand’s first WorldWCR podiums.
On her Sunday achievement, Sarapuech said: “I’m super happy for today, I was unlucky on Saturday, but on Sunday everything went more to plan. My plan was to move forward and fight in the top group. I checked my pace every lap and how it stacked up to my competitors. By the final lap, I saw the lead pair out in front of me, and I knew I needed to push in the last corner. It was amazing, I’m super super happy for this weekend, it was amazing. I want to thank my family, the EEST Racing Team, and my fans. I’m super super happy with this weekend.”
Keep up with Sarapuech and the rest of the field across the final two WorldWCR rounds to come by subscribing to the WorldWCR YouTube channel and following the Championship on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook!