The FIM Supersport World Championship riders got their weekend cracking with the first race of their Motul Hungarian Round in epic fashion. Valentin Debise (EASTROC ZXMOTO Factory Evan Bros Racing) emerged the victor for his manufacturer’s third time in their maiden season, beating out Albert Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing Team) as they made it past Can Oncu (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) in the final sector of the final lap.

TURN 15-16 HEARTBREAK: After leading the lion’s share of the race lead, Garcia was forced to retire from Race 1

After a tough Tissot Superpole session where he only set a time to place P25, Jaume Masia's weekend went from bad to worse when he made contact on the first lap with Andreas Kofler (Motorsport Kofler), resulting in an incident at the opening chicane. Ahead of him, Arenas and Oncu sparred early for P1, tailed by Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Yamaha) and Filippo Farioli (VFT Racing) on Lap 2. On that same lap, the Italian lost time and fell to P16 before later retiring. Lap 3 saw Garcia bundle Arenas aside for P2, and from there Oncu and the Spaniard began to pull away from Arenas with a gap of six tenths by Lap 5. Valentin Debise (EASTROC ZXMOTO Factory Evan Bros Racing) established himself in P4 behind them after Farioli’s retirement.

By Lap 13, Oncu clung to Garcia’s shadow four tenths back until Garcia took a tumble to the gravel from the race lead. With renewed vigour, Arenas and Debise closed the gap to Oncu in the race lead. The margins got smaller and smaller between the three until, on the last lap, Oncu came in too hot into the Turn 12-13 chicane, putting him out of position as Arenas and Debise tucked in past him. Of the pair, Debise had the better run through the final corner to the line, earning Debise his first win since his Portimao double. Arenas’s P2 lands him the Championship lead as he now leads the #5 by 19 points.

RECORD HIGHS: Alcoba takes his best result of the season in clinical fashion

Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team) rode a tidy race from his P8 race start, climbing up to P4 and closing in on the podium group until he ran wide into the penultimate lap’s final chicane to leave him in P4. Matteo Ferrari (WRP Racing) followed Alcoba home, finishing a third of a second behind him, and 4.8s ahead of German rider Philipp Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team) behind him. For his part, the #65 earns a respectable haul of points from P6 after his P10 grid start.

BOOTH-AMOS TO THE RESCUE: The Englishman climbs to P7

Tom Booth-Amos (PTR Triumph Factory Racing) laced up his climbing boots in Race 1 as he clawed his way back from a P22 grid start position into the top 10 by Lap 10, from where he went on to finish in P7. Simon Jespersen (EAB Racing Team) led the third group ahead of Oettl and Aldi Mahendra (AS BLU CRU Racing Team) in P7 at the race’s midpoint until he ran wide on Turn 9. While Oettl made it clear of the Dane, Jespersen got a position back on the Indonesian to take P8 and send Mahendra to P9. In P10, Mattia Casadei (D34G WorldSSP Racing Team) took his second straight top ten after not having recorded a single one this season prior to Assen Race 2.

The top six from the WorldSSP Race 1: Full results here!

1. Valentin Debise (EASTROC ZXMOTO Evan Bros Factory)
 2. Albert Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing Team) +0.132s
 3. Can Oncu (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) +0.377
 4. Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team) +0.770
 5. Matteo Ferrari (WRP Racing) +1.092s
 6. Philipp Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team) +5.835s
 Fastest Lap: Albert Arenas (Yamaha), 1'42.737s

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