Montella ends Huertas winning streak

A first victory since the opening round of the year saw Yari Montella claw back five points on Adrian Huertas in the championship standings.

The Italian rider led every lap, set a new lap record and won the race on a perfect day for the Barni Spark Racing Team rider

Having started from pole position Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) dropped down the order in the early laps. A brave move on Manzi at Turn 9 saw him take second position but with a margin of three seconds to Montella there was too much ground to make up before the end of the 17 lap race

Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) came out on top of a last lap battle with Jorge Navarro (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) but Navarro was given some consolation with a front row start for Race 2 courtesy of his fast lap time during the race

Montella, Huertas and Navarro will make up the front row for Race 2 tomorrow

Key Points:
Pole position: Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) 1’43.352
Race 1 winner: Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team)
Race fastest lap: Yari Montella 1’43.246

P1 | Yari Montella | Barni Spark Racing Team
“Finally, it’s a win! Today was incredible because I felt stronger than ever. I enjoyed the entire race. My strategy was simply to push from the start because we saw that usually Huertas pushes from the start. In this race I tried to do the same. I understand that he didn’t have a great start so I was probably a bit lucky. In the end, I think we were the strongest today. We need to focus and understand this race to try to improve for tomorrow.”

WorldSSP Race 1 Results
1. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team)
2. Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) +3.241s
3. Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) +10.598s
4. Jorge Navarro (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) +12.169s
5. Federico Caricasulo (Motozoo ME AIR Racing) +14.868s
6. Valentin Debise (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) +15.811s

Championship Standings
1. Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) 256 points
2. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) 215 points
3. Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) 199 points

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