16.07.2022
Greetings from the trackside of Donington Park, where you can do anything but barbecue. Because if someone were to lose control of grilling their sausages, all that would be left of the Midlands, which is heading towards the peak of the heat wave, would be a pile of ashes. Apparently, the situation weighing above the island, which is slowly turning into a frying pan, also affected the events of the fifth FIM World Supersport Championship round, because the first race of the class was shorter than planned, the race was restarted as many as two times (!). Additionally, the race in question was characterized by a whole number of crashes, by which the leaders were also not left untouched.
In the initial phase of the race, which started after the first restart, Hannes Soomer (Dynavolt Triumph), who started from P9, also had to go off the track, as he was pushed off by a fellow competitor in the first sector of the opening lap. Fortunately for the Estonian, his vehicle was intact and due to the restart due to the crashes, he did not have to start chasing his competitors from the end of the pack. In the second restart, the Dynavolt Triumph rider was able to move up a place in the beginning but had to give up several places during the subsequent fights, dropping to eleventh. However, Soomer then gradually started to improve, finishing the first race of the fifth World SSP round in seventh place behind teammate Stefano Manzi.
"On Friday, we had a worry-free day and everything went smoothly, but in today's qualifying, the wind gusts messed things up so much that I was constantly driving in the limiter in fifth gear in one sector, and we quickly made some changes to avoid this," Soomer said after the race. "But the weather changed again before the race and the changes had no use. But at least we reached the finish line in one piece and we know what needs to be done to be faster on Sunday." Today's first race in Donington Park was won by World SSP series leader Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha), followed by Lorenzo Baldassari (Yamaha) and Raffaele De Rosa (Ducati).