Puccetti Kawasaki’s Kenan Sofuoglu pounced late to extend his World Supersport championship lead with an incisive victory at Misano.
Sofuoglu’s fourth win of 2016 puts him 40 points ahead of team-mate Randy Krummenacher in the standings after making his move on PJ Jacobsen towards the end of the 19-lap race.
Honda’s Jacobsen, suffering some tyre issues towards the end of the contest in Italy also saw Federico Caricasulo on the Bardahl Evan Bros Honda overtake him on the final lap as the Italian took second.
Caricasulo had begun the race brightly, taking the holeshot and enjoying a tussle with Sofuoglu in the opening laps before Jacobsen made his way through to the front.
The American stayed there for the majority of the race, leading well but crucially using up plenty of tyre around the hard-wearing Misano circuit and in the end it told.
A battle was playing off in behind, with Caricasulo holding off Sofuoglu but allowing Jacobsen to edge ahead and create a gap.
Sofuoglu pressed the Italian hard, trying down the inside of Turn 2 a few times but the Honda rider closed the door manfully.
Eventually Caricasulo made a telling error, running wide on Turn 13 and letting Sofuoglu past, his pressure paying off.
That allowed the Turkish rider to reel Jacobsen in, and on the penultimate lap the four-time World Supersport champion eased through at Tramonto.
Caricasulo, following Sofuoglu intently since running wide saw the move happen and was inspired, producing a carbon-copy of the overtake on the final lap to take a stunning second and leave Jacobsen to pick up the pieces in third.
Britain’s Gino Rea took an excellent fourth for his GRT Racing Team, the top-placed MV Agusta ahead of Krummenacher and fellow MV rider Lorenzo Zanetti.
Luke Stapleford rode a commendable race to take ninth on his Profile Triumph, although the remaining Britons had no such luck with Kyle Ryde taking 23rd place and both Kyle Smith and Stefan Hill failing to finish the race.
MV Agusta’s Jules Cluzel’s faint title hopes are finished too, after a crash at Turn 6 saw him retire from the race and he now sits an insurmountable 71 points behind Sofuoglu.
