The Italian recovered from an early crash in Free Practice 2 to take top honours after Friday running for the Spanish Round.
The Hyundai N Catalunya Round got underway for the FIM Supersport World Championship at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) taking top honours despite a crash in the early stages of Free Practice 2 as he topped the times ahead of 2019 Champion Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing) by less than a tenth of a second.
De Rosa left it late to move to the top of the times but posted a 1’45.687s to claim top spot after two 45-minute practice sessions to get the weekend underway, with De Rosa fending off the challenge from Krummenacher by just 0.067s. Krummenacher had a strong debut with his new team despite a crash at Turn 10 in FP2, finishing second in both sessions as well as the combined classification. Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team) had looked like he was going to take top spot but a flurry of late laps moved him down to third place, a tenth behind De Rosa.
South African rider Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team), who is looking to close the gap in the Championship with Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) absent this weekend due to a clash, was fourth. Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) claimed fifth place in the combined standings but was fastest in the morning session, the first rider who did not improve his time in the afternoon. Finnish rider Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti) claimed sixth spot, ensuring all three manufacturers on track were represented in the top six.
WorldSSP Combined Results after FP2
1. Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) 1’45.620s
2. Randy Krummenacher (CM Racing) +0.067s
3. Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team) +0.109s
4. Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) +0.161s
5. Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) +0.278s
6. Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Corse Clienti) +0.354s
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