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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

5 September 2020

Fourth And Fifth At Teruel

The first of two 15-lap WorldSSP Teruel races gave a fourth place finish to Lucas Mahias and fifth place to Philipp Öttl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) with one more WorldSSP race to come on Sunday.

Mahias qualified fifth after Superpole earlier today, for a start from the middle of the second row. His team-mate Öttl secured sixth place, to also start from the second row, but only after suffering a very fast crash that he escaped without injury.

In the race itself Lucas crossed the start/finish line in fourth place for almost all the 15 laps. He had moved up to a podium position of third on lap three as he gave his all to try and record another podium finish. He would take a final top four placing, to leave him third in the overnight championship rankings.

Simultaneously racing for the best position possible while rebuilding his confidence on some levels, Öttl took fifth place in the race, which he believed was the maximum final result possible in what were warm track conditions.

Now Lucas and Philipp face one more race at the 5.077km Motorland Aragon circuit  – their fourth in just over a week – in Sunday’s 15-lap finale. After this round the championship will head to Catalunya, for another two races between 18 and 20 September.

Lucas Mahias, stated: “Not my favourite race this one but I think that is the maximum I can do. I was pushing in the beginning - and on the last lap - to the absolute maximum of the bike set-up today. When the temperature is a little bit cooler it is a little bit easier - like last weekend for example - and also the wind direction helped me then. But for this race the temperature was so high and I did not have a good feeling on the front and the rear. This race was not the best for me.”

Philipp Öttl, stated: “This morning we started with a good feeling and were P2 overall in the practice session. In qualifying we were on a good lap but I crashed, unfortunately. The good thing was that we were in the first two rows anyway, which is not too bad for the start. But, I had to get my feeling back again on the bike. The grip was also very bad in the race, we need to find something in the set-up as I am not sure where the biggest problems is. The conditions changed a little bit this weekend as well. So, we need to make another change on the bike settings. I am happy with P5, after the crash, to be honest, because I lost a bit of confidence after sliding along at 160kmph. It was a high speed crash but we recovered. Tomorrow we aim to keep our speed for a little bit longer.”

Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) scored a strong sixth place today, having qualified eighth. Can Öncü (Turkish Puccetti Racing), from 11th on the grid, fell at turn seven and was unable to restart.

                                     #NinjaSpirit