Randy leads the way in WSS day one

In the Supersport World Championship division first time WSS rider Randy Krummenacher held off his Kawasaki Puccetti team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu to record the fastest testing time of day one.

His 1’33.678 was only 0.092 seconds up on Sofuoglu, who was one of the few riders not to improve his morning session time later in the day.

Swiss rider Krummenacher said, “I still need to understand more of the bike, still we have some work, but I did not expect the time at the end. I knew I was going to go faster but not like half a second. We made a step in the rear and have more confidence. We will keep working and it gives me a lot of confidence but I have to put that into a good lap and not say that I can relax.”

Regular race pace was still good for Krummenacher but he knew his team-mate Sofuoglu was concentrating on long runs on day one. “For sure Kenan is the number one because he made race distance. I had a lot of work because we tested so many different things, so we did not do a race distance. But, I can say that when I went out I immediately went into a 1’34. This is positive. Tomorrow, when we are more or less all settled we will do at least one race distance. Tyre life for us has been really good; we are not struggling. I think the WP suspension gives us another strong point in our package.”

Behind rookie Krummenacher the other top riders had a familiar feel, with returnee rider from injury Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) third and another proven race winner, PJ Jacobsen (Honda World Supersport team) fourth.

The second works MV Agusta of Lorenzo Zanetti was fifth fastest, 0.786 seconds adrift of Krummenacher.

Germany’s Kevin Wahr (Gemar Ballons Team Lorini Honda) placed sixth and double faller Gino Rea (GRT Racing MV Agusta) was seventh.

Ondrej Jezek (Team GO Eleven Kawasaki) was the first unofficial Ninja ZX-6R rider home, in eighth place, with Aussie duo Aiden Wagner (GRT Racing MV Agusta) and wild card rider Anthony West (Tribeca Racing Yamaha) tenth.

Twenty-seven WSS riders lined up for this test.