Andrea Locatelli’s first chance of clinching the WorldSSP title this weekend at the Catalunya WorldSBK round is high, especially as Jules Cluzel won’t ride after his Aragon crash with Raffaele De Rosa.
Running away at the front of the field, Locatelli’s masterful campaign continued with a ninth consecutive win of the year at Aragon's second race weekend.
He’s now the rider with the most WorldSSP wins in a single season, and there’s still six more races left to run. He’s re-writing the record books with every corner and if he leaves Catalunya with a lead of 100 points or more, he’s done it.
With Cluzel not riding, Locatelli must win race one, outscore Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) by 19 points and score more points than Mahias' teammate Philipp Oettl to be champion by the end of Saturday. So long as he leaves the round with 100 points as his advantage, then he's done enough.
Second in the Championship but with a lower left leg fracture and out, Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) can do very little but hope Locatelli scores less than 21 points this weekend. The Frenchman looks set to be the bridesmaid again in World Supersport and will be replaced by WorldSSP winner Kyle Smith this weekend.
Behind him by 27 points is fellow countryman Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), and the 2017 WorldSSP Champion hopes to close in on Cluzel whilst the #16 is absent.
Fourth overall in the standings and 19 points behind teammate Mahias, Philipp Oettl has experience around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and hopes that it will give him some advantage over the opposition.
Having said that, Oettl only has one top ten finish to his name at Catalunya and that came back in 2015 in the Moto3 World Championship, so he’ll hope to be a bit more competitive this weekend.
Completing the top five and nine points behind Oettl in the standings is Raffaele De Rosa, who will start race one from pitlane after his collision with Cluzel at Aragon. De Rosa was ninth in the 250cc GP in 2009 and hopes he can have good race pace to pick his way through the field.
